The Case of the Missing Sausages
by BedazzleDewdrops
Summary: Yep, you read that title right. In this humorous take on the Ninjago world, the sausages have all mysteriously disappeared! The ninja don't think much of this till strange sightings of sausage-like characters lead them onto one of their most crazy and just random adventures of all time, resulting in a dangerous encounter with the dreaded sorcerer, Caudeth.
1. The Start of It All

**Hello, everyone! We're both excited to be posting our first fanfic and hope you'll enjoy it's crazy randomness! This story was mostly a result of boredom, and it being our first fanfic, it's maybe not the best, but we tried! Anyways, we'll keep this authors' note short and sweet. Let's get this story started! XD**

* * *

Imagine a typical neighborhood. Neat, if not a little shabby, houses all in a row, green lawns, pale paint jobs of beige, turquoise, gold, and green, friendly neighbors; an average suburban neighborhood lining a decent street. You know how there's always that one house with the dying lawn, slightly peeling paint, occasional taped window, and consent screams and shouts coming from inside? Now picture that with a huge side garage, underground basement, and a flying ship in the backyard, and you have the ninja HQ.

While they're not saving Ninjago from world-threatening evil, the ninja live somewhat, uh, kinda ordinary lives, if you can call whatever happens in that house ordinary. They are often doing small side missions, some of which are too absurd to be mentioned. But one of those, dear readers, are what we are going to be telling you today. You think you know these great protectors well, do you? Let's prove you wrong...

Beep, beep, beep!

Carol groaned, and rolled over in bed, but Tia instantly sprang up, jumped out of bed, and shut off the blaring alarm clock.

"Don't you just love that satisfying sound of a clock announcing the coming day?" Tia exclaimed, stroking the clock lovingly.

"Um, Tia?" Carol rolled back over to look at her. "You're the only person I know who enjoys hearing an alarm clock go off. And trust me, I know a lot of people."

Carol was the pink ninja-the Master of Interpretation-as well as Lloyd's older sister, and she and Tia, the Master of Time and the purple ninja, often visited the ninja HQ to help with missions and receive extra training. And in Tia's case, to get revenge on a specific ninja. More on that later.

"I have the whole day planned out!" Tia said excitedly, copper hair flying crazily as she dug through their dresser and pulled out a slightly crumpled piece of paper. "And I made you one, too!" She handed Carol another crumpled paper, which she took tentatively.

Carol was carefully reading the paper as Tia looked at her impatiently.

"Well? Let's go to breakfast!" She said.

"Um, okay." Carol replied as she put her paper down. Tia and Carol got ready and went to the dining room where they saw Sensei Wu sitting at the head of the table, drinking tea and glancing over the morning newspaper.

"Good morning, my little sausages." he said.

"Where's everyone else?" asked Carol, trying to keep her face expressionless at Sensei's strange greeting.

Sensei Wu answered, "They are still sleeping, young sausage. So, you can help make the sausages."

Tia let out a long sigh, then eventually dragged herself to the kitchen.

"Tia, can you get the frying pan?" said Sensei, barely looking up from the newspaper.

Tia grabbed the frying pan in both hands, a sly smile stretching across her face. "Can I hit Jay with this?"

"That frying pan is for making sausages, not whacking your teammates," the old man replied.

"It's not my teammate!" she insisted, hands on hips.

"We will drop this subject now, my little sausage."

The reason for Tia's intense hatred of Jay is really a long story. The two ninja never liked each other from the start. One day, when Tia was walking towards the door, Jay came bursting through, door slamming outward. The impact cracked Tia's most prized watch, and from there war between the Masters of Time and Lightning broke out. The others tried to ignore it, but the two ninjas' everlasting feud didn't always stay just between the two of them.

"Sensei," Carol said, "why is it taking so long to find the sausages?"

Sensei Wu was digging around in the fridge where the sausages normally were, then he shot up saying, "They are gone." His eyes were filled with raw terror, and Carol and Tia exchanged a mildly concerned glance.

"Well, if we're not making sausages can I hit Stalker?" Tia asked.

Sensei Wu replied, "No. But, we need to find them. You can't celebrate The Fourth of Nuly without sausages. It is tradition!"

"Well, maybe this year we can change tradition," Carol offered, not wanting things to get too out of hand.

"We can't!" Tia broke in. "Jay Garbage-Stalker hates sausages, so we have to have them!"

Carol sighed. So much for that idea.

"Raise thee alarm, my young sausages," Sensei Wu commanded, looking dramatically off into the distance. "We must get to the bottom of this thievery!"

"I bet it was Jay," Tia murmured, slowly making her way out of the kitchen.

* * *

 **That chapter was pretty short with mostly just OCs, but they will get longer. ;) And that was our first chapter ever! (cue confetti and cheering) You may be wondering where this whole "sausage" thing came from. Well, to make a long story short, there was this book that the one who is typing at this very second read. I don't remember the name, but there was this gym teacher who called his students his "little sausages". This started a conversation on what it would be like if Sensei Wu did this, and well, here we are! It's the simple things in life...XD**


	2. Loud Noises

Chapter 2: Pan-banging, Yelling, and Other Loud Noises

 **Hello once again! Here's a bit longer chapter with the actual ninja in it. XD There's no reviews to respond to (cue sad violin music) so, let's just get to it! ;P**

* * *

Zane and Kai woke up to the annoying sound of a mix of their alarm clock and someone banging a frying pan.

Zane climbed down the bunk bed to turn off the alarm clock and then opened the bedroom door. Outside he saw Tia standing there, banging a large metal frying pan with a wooden spoon. When she saw him, Tia stopped banging the pan, almost reluctantly.

"What brings you?" Zane asked Tia cautiously.

"Sensei asked me to wake y- wait, is Kai still sleeping?" Tia's hazel eyes flashed with annoyance as she looked over to where the fire ninja still lay in the bottom bunk.

"Five more minutes, y'all," Kai mumbled, rolling over.

"I sense you should get up," the logical nindroid said. He made his way over to the small bedroom window and pulled the curtains open. Faint light streamed into the room. "If Sensei asked Tia to come and awake us at this early hour, this must be important."

Kai grumbled at the sudden brightness and slowly sat up. "This better not be that we ran out of tea. We just got some and I ain't goin' back to that dump also known as the local grocery store, y'all!" the southern ninja complained. "It's worse than this house!"

"Nope. It's sausages." Tia said matter-a-factly, crossing her arms.

"Ugh, sausages, y'all?" Kai complained, throwing himself under the covers. "I'm goin' back to bed!"

 _Thunck!_

Tia had grabbed one of Zane's many history books off the wooden shelf and threw it viciously at Kai's head. A muffed curse came from his bunk.

"You're wasting TIME, dude!" she said with great emphasis, flipping her braid over her shoulder. She turned back to Zane. "Sorry to leave you with _that_ ," she said, pointing at Kai, "but I've gots more peeps to wake!" And with that, she whirled around and marched out of their bedroom, resuming to whack the pan with her large spoon.

* * *

Carol walked up the stairs to Jay and Cole's room first, knowing that Tia had a frying pan and wouldn't be afraid to use its iron-hard authority to put Jay in his place. When she began to close in on the door, she quickly covered her nose with her shirt's sleeve. A strong smell of unwashed socks radiated off the bedroom door. _Something seriously must be done about this reek_ , Carol thought, _but I'm not in the mood to deal with it now_.

Reaching into her back pocket, she pulled out an air horn she had swiped from the kitchen table earlier and pushed down on the button.

The horn's howling noise immediately rang through the entire hall, even making Carol herself jump at the fierce volume. Hearing muffled yells and scuffling from inside, she put the air horn back in her pocket, covered her nose and mouth with her thin pink scarf, took a deep breath, and pushed the door open.

Her eyes scanned the room in a few, quick seconds—old clothes thrown haphazardly over the floor, a half-eaten pizza with its crumpled box set on top of a computer, and rock band posters along with numerous blueprints hung on the walls. Then she looked over to the commotion on the other side of the room.

"NNNOOOO!" Cole had sat up instantly in a panic. "NOT THE CAKE! ANYTHING BUT THE CAKE!"

Jay, who was lying on the floor rubbing his head after taking a tumble out of the top bunk, glared at Cole. "What's wrong now?" he asked in an annoyed voice. "Did you have another nightmare about Lloyd stealing your cake?"

"No." Cole replied calmly, "This time he threw it out a twelve-story high window."

"You had to wake me up for that?! It's the middle of the night!"

"Actually, it's morning. And _you're_ the one who woke _me_ up."

"What are you talking about? I didn't do anything!"

"I wasn't the one to do experiments with air horns early in the morning!"

"I didn't—"

" _Ahem._ "

Cole and Jay quickly turned, seeing Carol standing there for the first time.

"Sensei requires that everyone comes down to the dining room immediately," she said, voice muffled by the scarf.

"But, we just woke up and I haven't had my morning cake!" said Cole indignantly. "And it's barely morning! Can't it wait?"

"Sensei wants you now!" replied Carol.

"Why? And why is your scarf like that?" asked Jay.

"Sensei's calling an emergency meeting. And, your room smells." Carol held her scarf tightly to her nose and hurried out of the room.

After she had left, Jay looked over at Cole, who had taken a slice of cake out of what was supposed to be a clothes drawer.

"Why do you have cake?"

"Because…because, it's cake."

* * *

Lloyd groaned aloud as his alarm clock went off furiously, filling the whole room with its ruckus. It banged relentlessly almost as if-wait a second...that wasn't an alarm clock! He jumped out of bed and opened the door to find Tia over-enthusiastically banging a frying pan.

He was the odd one out, having his own room, unless that other elemental master, Mac, came to visit. It was probably good that Mac wasn't here at the same time as Carol, otherwise Lloyd might lose it. He still didn't know whether to believe the whole "just friends" thing.

"SAUSAGE EMERGENCY!" Tia yelled in his ear. "Everyone's to be downstairs in exactly three minutes, fifteen seconds, and forty-two milliseconds, counting down!"

Lloyd winced, rubbing his ears. "Okay, I get it! You don't need to yell!"

"YOU'RE YELLING!" Tia shouted even louder. She continued down the hall, banging on her now slightly dented frying pan violently with her spoon, saying "EMERGENCY! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! EVERYONE TO THE DINING ROOM!"

She liked that pan _way_ too much.

* * *

As Carol walked over to Nya and Skylor's room, she could hear from the conversation inside that they were already awake. She knocked lightly on the door. It opened a few seconds later, and Skylor stood in the doorway, already dressed in jeans and an autumn orange sweater.

"Oh, hey Carol," Skylor said. "I didn't think you'd be up already."

"Tia and I were given breakfast duty today," Carol explained. "And Tia wanted to get up thirty minutes earlier to add extra time into her schedule, something like that. Anyways, Sensei needs you both. Apparently, there's some sort of sausage emergency."

"Yeah, uh, we'll be there as soon as Nya can get off her phone." Skylor said.

"Wait, what?"

Skylor nodded, giving an exasperated sigh. "She just got an Instagram account, and is now obsessed. She told me I should get one, that I'm falling behind the times." She rolled her eyes. "She wants a Snapchat account next."

"Oh, well good luck with that." Carol said, thinking she saw some camera flashes behind Skylor. She gave Skylor a quick wave and then went back to the dining room.

The rest of the ninja where gathered around the table, expressions ranging from annoyed to completely confused. Sensei sat silently at the head of the table, staring solemnly into the distance.

After Skylor and Nya came into the room, Skylor dragging Nya by the arm while Nya tried to type with one hand, Sensei Wu began to make his announcement.

"My little sausages," he began dramatically, "I have bad news: the sausages have escaped!" Then he threw the empty pack of sausages on the table.

Jay threw his hands in the air saying, "Yes! No sausages for breakfast!"

Sensei Wu glared at him and Jay slowly put his hands back down. "We need to find these sausages, young sausages, before the great evil does." Sensei Wu's eyes scanned the nine ninja before him. "I fear the worst."

"This does not compute," said the Master of Ice. "How would the sausages escape? They are meat."

"I fear that the dark sorcerer, Caudeth, Clouse's brother, may be behind this." Sensei explained. "It has been rumored that he was spotted recently in the area. He thrists for revenge after Clouse was banished to the Cursed Realm, and if that means stealing our stock of precious sausages, then he will! And I believe he has something sinister up his sleeve."

"No!" exclaimed Cole, "he can't use food to attack us! I love food too much!"

"Since when did Clouse have a brother?" asked Lloyd, eyebrow raised.

"Very good question, my little sausage," replied Sensei Wu. "Very, very good question."

"So?" Tia butted in impatiently. "What can this Clondike guy do with one pack of sausages?"

"Not just one," Nya said, looking down at her phone. Everyone at the table stared at her. She cleared her throat and continued. "According to recent police reports, all the grocery and meat stores in Ninjago have had their sausages robbed. At first police thought it was some kind of trickster, but when it kept happening, it's obvious that something suspicious was going on."

"And when did this start happening?" Skylor inquired.

"Late last week. The attack on our own store of sausages was the final steal."

"My young sausages," Wu began, "you must go to New Ninjago City and investigate these tragic thefts. Spilt yourselves into three groups of three and find out what you can. I'll be here in the control room, while mourning the loss of our blessed sausages."

"We're on it, Sensei," replied Cole. "But what about breakfast?"

"Skip breakfast! I already lost my appetite!" Tia said, standing up. "We got work to do!"

"Let's do this!" Lloyd exclaimed.

* * *

 **Whew! One more chapter done! You may be thinking "What in the world is up with this southern Kai?" Well, it's a long story, but we mostly did it for our own amusement. XD Anyways, don't be shy; leave a review! We both would love to hear what you think of our crazy story so far! ;)**


	3. Straaaange Maaagic!

Chapter 3: Straaaange Maaagic!

 **When you have two projects and an essay to finish in one weekend, banging your head on your laptop's keyboard is a very common side-effect. Trust me, I'm talking from experience. But, I'm determined to stay true to the posting schedule and get this thing posted! And we got our first review! :D I'll try to put our replies to your reviews in the beginning part of our chapters like I see those expert fanfic writers do. Anyways, this authors' note is long enough! To the story!**

 **Guest: You have no idea how much Kendra and I freaked out when we saw our first review! We were literally telling all of our fellow Ninjago fangirls about it! :D Thank you so much! We're glad we made you laugh! Free cookies and waffles! (::) (::) (#) (#)**

* * *

"I sense that the sausage thief is somewhere within a 100 foot radius," explained Zane to the other members of his group, Tia and Skylor.

They were patrolling the south part of New Ninjago City, which was also the least populated part. The three ninja were currently walking down a mostly empty street lined with small, shabby shops, looking for anything to help the search for the evil sorcerer. Dark rain clouds had covered the sun, making everything seem a lot more eerie and dark than normal. Quiet thunder sounded in the distance.

"Can't you narrow it down a little?" Tia complained, flinching when a crow suddenly flew past them.

"Yes. 99.99999999999999999999 feet radius."

"Ha, ha. Very funny," she said sarcastically.

"I wasn't implying to be 'funny'," Zane said, looking confused.

Skylor came in saying, "She was just kidding, you know?"

"Oh," the white ninja observed. "I've always found sarcasm to be a complicated concept."

"Oo! What's this?" Tia said, stopping suddenly. She pulled a little bit of fabric from a sticker bush that was growing through a crack in the sidewalk and held it up like a trophy.

Skylor looked skeptical. "Um, it's just a little bit of fabric. The chances of it being a piece of evidence is really unlikely. A sorcerer would be better at covering his tracks, wouldn't he?"

"I'll analyze the item with my CT12000 scanning system," Zane offered, taking the fabric from Tia. "Scanning." His eyes lit up and their blue light ran up and down on the object Tia found. "According to the traces of DNA left on this fabric, I can conclude that it is a scrap from Caudeth's cape," Zane said, eyes going back to normal. "It was freshly torn, meaning he was here not long ago."

Tia looked triumphantly at Skylor with an "I told you so!" look.

Skylor rolled her eyes. "Okay, I stand corrected. So, can you track him down with it?" she asked, turning back to Zane.

"The chances of finding him with this little bit of cloth, is unlikely. A 13.3546 percent chance to be exact. But, we can try." Zane said.

"Well, what are we waiting for! Let's do this!" said Tia, starting down the street.

"Tia," Skylor called, "you should let Zane lead. 'Cause you're going the _wrong way_!"

* * *

"So you did see the thief or you didn't?" Nya asked, starting to get frustrated.

"I did! I just don't remember what he looked like!" The manager paused, then added, "And I didn't see where he went either."

Nya, Jay, and Kai were looking in the sausage victim's shops, searching for clues and answers. Right now they were in the nearby Martwal, where one of the most recent thefts took place. Nya was asking the manager questions, while Kai stood behind Jay, breathing down his neck. He claimed to be keeping any "funny business" from happening between his sister and Jay.

Nya sighed, and flipped her short hair. "Do you have any surveillance footage?"

"It went missing."

"You're sure you don't have anything that can help us? We visited almost all the stores and still found nothing useful."

The manager paused, reconsidering. "Well, we did find this." He motioned to a worker standing nearby, and she came forward with a paper bag in her hand. Nya took it, and opened the bag. She suddenly gasped.

"What?" Jay asked, and he and Kai leaned in to look.

Inside the bag was a single sausage, normal _besides_ the eerie green light coming from it. And while they stared at it, it seemed to be _growing_ very slowly.

"That's disgustin', y'all!" Kai exclaimed, jerking his head back from the bag.

"It's almost twice the size it was from when we found it," the manager said nervously. "What's happened to it? Were Little Smokies recalled without me hearing about it?"

"I have no idea what's wrong with it," Nya said truthfully, "but I'll take it back to HQ for studying." She closed the bag again, and nodded to the others. "Thank you for your help, manager. Come on, guys, let's get out of here."

"I agree!" Kai said eagerly, setting the pace. "This store a-smells fishy in more ways than one, y'all!"

* * *

Lloyd, Carol, and Cole were making their way through a series of alleyways in the center of the city. Police reports said a strange figure had ran for it down the dark passages, and they were hoping to find Caudeth or his hideout in this sketchy part of the city. So far, they found nothing of use, and rain already began to sprinkle down on the three ninja.

"Guys, I have a strong feeling that this Caudeth guy is in the bakery!" stated Cole, breaking the tense silence.

"What makes you say that?" asked Carol, rubbing her arms as the temperature began to drop.

"My stomach said it!"

Carol sighed, exasperated. "If you need breakfast that badly, why don't you just take your dragon and go to McDonald's and get a cheese burger or something?"

"Yeah," Lloyd said, looking up from inspecting a nearby dumpster, "something that doesn't say 'Mac'." He shot a pointed glare at Carol. It was the glare no one liked with his green eyes flaring and his eyebrows raised in a Spock-ish way.

"What he said!" Carol said a little nervously, color in her cheeks.

"But, guys, I want cake!" Cole blurted out. "Not a cheeseburger! Although, a cheeseburger does sound really good…"

"You know," said Carol, "Let's go back to finding Caudeth!"

"I can't honestly find some sausage criminal with an empty stomach!" exclaimed Cole dramatically. "Sensei is insane to just send-"

"SSSHHH!" Lloyd clapped a hand over Cole's mouth. "Look!"

Carol and Cole followed Lloyd's gaze and saw a suspicious-looking figure slinking through the alleyway, carrying something in a bag by the looks of it.

"You know who that is?" Lloyd loud-whispered, pointing at the figure.

Carol blinked. "Uh, no."

"Well, I say we find out who he is!" Lloyd said. He put his mask on, crouched down, and began to stalk the strange man through the dark alley. Carol started to follow, then saw Cole still standing there staring at the bakery. Rolling her eyes, she grabbed him by the arm and pulled him down the passage behind the Master of Energy.

* * *

For the past three hours, Zane, Skylor, and Tia had been tracking down the sausage thief using Zane's high-tech scanners and part of the thief's cape. So far they went down several random streets, did pointless laps in every other store, walked through private neighbors and were almost caught, and visited five parks. Tia was practically a ticking time bomb, ready to explode at any minute, second, or millisecond.

Finally, when they were right on the border of Salendary Park, Zane looked up for the first time in those three hours and said, "The trail stops here."

"Um, you're sure, Zane?" Skylor said, unconvinced. She looked around at the grassy field and distant group of dogwalkers chatting enthusiastically as they made their way out the park gate. "We're in the middle of an open field with nothing around for miles."

"If the mathematical and scientific evidence of my CT12000 scanner is correctly calculated, then the trail ends here. Caudeth was in this exact spot half an hour ago. 60 degrees latitude and-"

Skylor broke in. "Okay, I understand. Let's just...let's just look around. Maybe there's some kind of secret passage or entrance or something."

She began to dig around, while Zane scanned the ground for any signs of an underground complex. Tia murmured something inaudible, and began to look around too.

But an hour later, they still found nothing, and then Tia exploded. "For bean dip's sake, there's **nothing** here! _We just wasted precisely four hours, seventeen minutes, eight seconds, thirty-three milliseconds, and counting!_ "

Skylor sighed, and stood back up. "Maybe we should just head back and see if the others found anything."

"That is a logical idea," agreed Zane.

Skylor and Zane began to walk back to the Salendary Park gate. Tia watched them go, feeling a tad guilty for her outburst. As she looked back at the field, an idea of sorts popped in her head.

"Wait!" the purple ninja called after them. "Maybe...maybe I can try something."

Zane and Skylor turned around. "Try what?" Skylor asked, walking back next to Tia.

"I call it, ' _a brief history according to witnessing objects_ '," Tia said, bending down on her knees. "Something I do when I want to find out who ate my last cup of raspberry yogurt. I thought I made it clear that it was for my enjoyment only, but no one ever listens!"

She placed her hand on the ground, and soon small streams of golden and purple light swirled from it. Her eyes glazed over and went out of focus, as if in a daze. After a few minutes, she shook out of her trance and stood back up, brushing off her hands.

"Anything?" Skylor asked hopefully.

Tia sighed and said softly, "Clondike was here, but he teleported himself and all those stolen sausages somewhere far away." She paused, then said darkly, "We're dealing with a more powerful sorcerer than we thought."

* * *

 **Klondike bars and their dark sorcery of deliciousness! I knew there was reason why it's so hard to stop eating them! XD Wow, already to the third chapter! Time goes slow and fast at the same time… Don't forget to review! We love feedback! Till next time, on, TCofMS!**


	4. Stick Figure Art

Chapter 4: Stick Figure Art

 **Ha! I finally finished** _ **Romeo and Juliet**_ **in my Literature class!** _ **That**_ **was a** _ **real**_ **struggle. I think I can speak for both of us on this account when I say we're not the biggest romance fans, especially that gushy insta-love stuff. But you'll never guess what I have to do now…another project! (flops onto the floor and groans repeatedly) I'm convinced my teachers are out to get me.**

 **Loki God of Evil: Oo…that's a tough question. It really comes down to your experience of food offensive attacks and your tactical advantages...XD**

* * *

Nya, Jay, and Kai were back at the ninja HQ with the growing sausage. They had went down to the basement where Nya kept most of her Samurai X equipment and computers. Nya had immediately cleared her workbench, completely turning it into a research table. Now she was bent over the sausage, which had been carefully placed in a small crate, and was examining it carefully with a magnifying glass.

After a few minutes of awkward silence, Nya suddenly announced, "My theory is that Caudeth is using his dark magic to make the sausages change their form. I don't know why he'd change them, though, but it's obvious that's what's happening. He must've dropped this one by accident."

"Or maybe he purposely left that behind because there's something wrong with it." said Jay from over her shoulder, shifting from foot to foot.

"Maybe."

Meanwhile, Kai was standing behind Jay and Nya with a disgusted look on his face. First, Nya and Jay's 'funny business' and now this sausage. He thought his life couldn't get worse.

Sensei Wu then came into the room, tea cup in hand. "Did you find anything, my little sausages?"

"We found this," said Nya holding up the crate with the sausage.

"Very intriguing." The old man replied. "We will have to do some experimenting on it."

"Y'all, I ain't touchin' that!" Kai protested. Then the sausage started rolling slowly from side-to-side inside the crate, all on its own. "Ew!" His life just got worse.

"Yeah, that is weird..." said Jay, backing slowly away from the table.

"Well, we gotta do, what we gotta do!" said Nya, taking out her phone. "Rolling Sausage Selfie!" With a click and a flash, she posed next to the crate as she took the picture. "That's a keeper!"

"Sis, this ain't the time for selfies," said Kai. "There's a disturbin' sausage in that crate there!"

"Okay, calm down! We'll start!"

* * *

Lloyd, Carol, and Cole were following the suspicious man down the series of alleyways. Lloyd jumped from trash can to trash can, hiding behind them, while Carol and Cole simply walked behind him.

"Uh, is that really necessary, Lloyd?" Carol asked her brother after several minutes.

"SSSSHHHH!" Lloyd exclaimed in a loud whisper, whipping around. "HE'LL HEAR YOU."

Cole raised an eyebrow. "From around that corner eight yards away? Not likely."

Lloyd rolled his eyes, but got up anyways. "You guys have no respect for the ninja ways."

"I didn't know the ninja ways involved knocking over trash cans and almost getting us caught," Carol snorted.

Lloyd face went bright red. "I did not! That was the wind!"

"Since when did the wind knock over over-flooding trash cans?"

"It can happen! I saw it with my own eyes!"

" _Sure_ you did."

Right when it looked like a battle between siblings was about to break loose, Cole stepped in and said, "Um, the guy is still there..."

"Oh," Carol and Lloyd both said at the same time. They looked at each other then burst out laughing.

"Uh, still there," Cole repeated awkwardly, not getting what the joke was.

"Right." Lloyd took the lead again, and they crept around the corner to see the hooded guy standing in the ally, as if waiting for something. Then he began to pull something out of his pocket, like a pack of-

"IT'S HIM!" Lloyd exclaimed. "He has the sausages! Let's get him!"

The three ninja leapt forward and tackled the man from behind.

The man fell down down with a yelp, dropping his package of sausages on the concrete. "Looks like we caught you, Caudeth!" Lloyd said, yanking off the man's hood. An average-looking man glared back at him in annoyance.

"Cau-what? Why are you on me?" he exclaimed.

"You're a great actor, you know?" Lloyd said, putting his katana against the man's throat. "You better confess your evil schemes to us now, OR ELSE!"

"What? Just get off me!"

"Not until you say where you're keeping the city's sausages, and what you're doing with them!"

"Uh, my house? And what else do you do with sausages besides cook and eat them?"

"Cole, I need your help bringing him to Sensei!"

"Are you sure that's him?" Cole asked uncertainly. "He looks just like an ordinary civilian."

"Don't you remember 'the best way to defeat your enemy, is to make him your friend.'?"

"Uh, yeah, but what does that have to do with-"

"Enemy?!" The man exclaimed, look extremely confused and frustrated. "Listen pal, I'm just bringing these sausages over to my friend's house for a barbecue. Why am I the enemy?"

"Lloyd, I think you should get off him..." Carol said warningly.

Lloyd let out an annoyed groan before sheathing his katana and standing up. Then, the man got up, brushing off the ally's dust. "Thank you," he said sarcastically. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to be late!" With a huff, he hurried away into the nearby city street.

"I say we follow him." Lloyd said, staring at the man as he disappearing into the city bustle.

"No, that's defiantly not Caudeth! If it were he'd probably put up an actual fight, not just continue on his way like that! And that man did not have the look of a sorcerer," Carol argued pointedly.

"But, every sausage has been robbed! Why does he still have some?" Lloyd shot back.

"I say, we go back to HQ," said Cole tiredly. "There's no point stalking some dude who isn't a valid suspect. Plus, we still need breakfast!"

* * *

After everyone returned from their missions, the ninjas' control room erupted into complete chaos. Everyone seemed to be stating some kind of opinion on the thievery all at once. Lloyd was trying to draw a police sketch of the man he tackled; Cole had taken a bite out of the sausage sample and was claiming it was an accident, and Jay and Tia were screaming at each other for something completely unrelated to the topic. Kai was even standing on a desk, giving a speech as to why he will never eat sausages again.

"SILENCE, MY SAUSAGES!" It was impressive how Sensei Wu could manage to drown out the other's commotion with three words. Everyone stopped what they were doing immediately and looked at him.

"That is much better on my old ears," Wu commented. "Now, my little sausages, one group at a time, tell me what you learned."

There were a few moments of quite murmuring between the groups, then Skylor spoke up. "Zane, Tia, and I found part of Caudeth's cloak, and tracked him down. Apparently he visited every grocery and department store in the city, and explored in between. He teleports in and out of the city, but we don't know where or how," she finished.

Sensei Wu stroked his beard thoughtfully. "Very interesting, my young sausage. Now, next group: report."

"Well, ya see, we found this disgustin' sausage, y'all," stated Kai, "and, we think it's from Caudeth."

"Yeah, it's glowing green-ish." said Nya, holding up the crate once more.

"The poor sausage." said Sensei, shaking his head sadly. Jay made a face saying, _It's just a sausage!_

"And, the last group?" Wu continued.

Lloyd held up his drawing, revealing a stick figure. "This guy had sausages and claimed to be going to a friend's house. And I think that this friend is Caudeth."

"But," Carol interrupted, rolling her eyes, "he looked innocent and Lloyd's only reason for thinking this is that he had sausages." Right as she finished her statement, the doorbell abruptly rang.

"I'll get it!" Cole immediately piped up, looking for an excuse to get out of the current conversation. He quickly ran up the stairs.

"As I was saying-" started Lloyd, but was then interrupted (again).

"Lloyd!" Cole yelled from the door, "You're stick figure is here!"

"You confuse me!" said a familiar voice.

"It's him!" Lloyd said dramatically. He pulled out a small knife and raced up the stairs. Carol facepalmed.

The rest of the ninja went up the stairs as well, Sensei Wu trailing behind. He parted through the group to get a good look at the stranger. "Joe!" He said suddenly. "You got the sausages!"

"Wait, _Joe_?" Lloyd said, aghast. "You know him?!"

"Why, yes, young sausage," replied Sensei Wu. "He's one of my close friends, who enjoys the light sausages bring to this world." He glared pointedly at Jay, then continued. "We agreed on having a sausage barbecue today, before this tragedy took place." Wu turned to Joe. "And I see you still managed to hold up your end of the bargain."

"We're saved!" Cole whooped.

Joe ignored him. "I got them just before that store was robbed today. I think they're the last ones."

Lloyd still gave his Spock glare, not convinced.

"Wait, were you there at the time of the robbery?" Carol asked.

"Part of it," Joe replied, "I saw-"

"WHAT DID YOU SEE?!" Lloyd shouted, grabbing Joe by the shoulders and shaking him viciously.

Joe winced, and pulled himself free. "I was getting to that! I just exited the store, when I heard the alarm go off. I turned and saw a heavily cloaked figure running out of the store, carrying sausages. Employees were trying to stop him, and right when it looked like they might get him, the guy disappeared in a puff of smoke. Vanished." Joe snapped his fingers for emphasis.

Tia shuddered. "This is worse than I thought," she said. "I didn't think he'd be able to just teleport whenever! It'll take forever to catch up to him!"

"Well," said Joe, setting the sausages on the table. "I should be leaving now. I'm in the police, and I bet they need extra help with this case. I'll keep you guys updated if we find anything."

"Thank you, that would be greatly appreciated," said Wu.

Joe then left, closing the door quietly behind him. Now Lloyd gave the door his Spock glare.

After a bit of silence, Kai swiped the sausages off the table and said, "I don't know about y'all, but I am a-cooking these thangs before they start glowin' and rollin' all over!" With that, he tore open the package, arranged the sausages on the table, and began to blast them with fire from one hand.

"We need to get the stove fixed sometime soon," Skylor whispered to the others. "I don't like trusting Kai with our food."

* * *

In the darkening forest, there was light breeze that cooled down the tired sorcerer. _I didn't think turning sausages evil could be this difficult!_ he thought, _but it was all worth it._ He looked at his work, all those sausages laying on the dark dirt with that strong green glow. _Those pesky ninja won't stand a chance against my army. After this, all I have to do is get them to give me the Realm Crystal so I can resurrect my brother, and we can rule Ninjago like our father tried, but failed to the past elemental masters. Lucky for me, this_ _generation isn't nearly as well trained as those my father fought._

Then suddenly one of the sausages started moving a little.

 _It has begun..._

* * *

 **Oh man, I just remembered Daylight Savings is tomorrow! I need to fix my clocks! I can tell you right now, I'm going to be so tired in the morning…**

 **Don't forget to review! Yikes, I'm starting to sound like those YouTubers! XD Anyways, have a great week, y'all! ;)**


	5. Hotel Breakfasts

Chapter 5: Hotel Breakfasts

 **Happy late St. Patrick's Day, everybody! Yesterday I got up to discover all my green clothes were in the wash. That was poor planning on my part. And now here we are with chapter five already! There aren't a ton of chapters planned for this story, but Kendra and I are currently working on a much larger story for the near future…(dot dot dot[in case you didn't see the dots{dots can be very small}]) XD**

 **Loki God of Evil: You know, Caudeth and Thor should totally have a sausage-eating contest sometime…XD**

 **GLACIER3: Gotta love dat sausagey goodness!**

 **Guest: Lol-eth is right, partner…XD**

* * *

The next morning, all the ninja except for Nya were sitting around the dining room table awaiting breakfast. It was quieter than usual; the recent events putting a damper on a normally chaos-filled morning. Well, it was still chaotic, just _quietly_ chaotic.

Jay was on breakfast duty, and he came in carrying a large cardboard box of packaged muffins and yogurt.

"What...the heck...is this?!" Tia held a plastic wrapped muffin in the air, a look of disgust on her face.

"Breakfast, obviously!" Jay shot back, snatching back the muffin.

"This isn't breakfast! We can't fight on this! Only hotels call this junk breakfast, Jay Garbage-Stalker!"

"It's Jay Gordon or Walker to you, _my friend_!"

"Same thing!"

"Enough!" Sensei Wu said, calling things to order. "Our stove, oven, and dryer are all broken from…ahem, _unfortunate_ accidents, so until we get them fixed, my sausages, things will be a little out of order. And until we capture Caudeth, we won't have our vital source of sausages."

"Maybe Nya can fix some of those appliances," suggested Lloyd. "Speaking of Nya, where is she?"

"Oh, she told me she was running more tests on evidence #346, aka, the sausage," explained Skylor.

"So, Sensei, what's on the agenda today?" asked Cole.

"Today," Sensei Wu announced, "we train!"

"Train!?" Kai said, "But, y'all, that be too much work!"

"I sense it would be healthy for us to train, because we don't know what to expect from Caudeth and the sausages," suggested Zane politely.

"Zane is correct." said Wu, taking a sip of tea. "You must train or you'll get out of practice, my sausages."

"How much of my schedule is going to be changed?" Tia asked, ripping out a sheet of paper from her sweatshirt pocket. "I need to know exactly what time everything is so I can make sure that nothing runs too late or too early!"

"It will be, what it will be, my young sausage."

Jay looked at her with an evil smirk on his face.

"Don't look at me like that, Garbage!" she said, clenching her fists.

"Okay, whatever! But, it's Gordon!" he replied, glaring.

"As I've stated so many times, it's _the same thing_!"

"Sausages, can't you go one day without arguing?" Sensei put down his tea and fixed the two with a disapproving look.

"Not until that stops!"

"Right back at you!" Jay retorted.

"Sausages these days..." Sensei Wu sighed to himself. "Anyways, what was I saying? Oh, yes! Training! Meet me outside after you finish breakfast! We will start with stretches."

* * *

Nya studied the sausage intently, brow furrowed. Last night she had placed it in a large, clear plastic box for safekeeping. When she checked on it this morning, it had grown roughly three times the size it was the day before! And now, it seemed to be forming what looked suspiciously like eyes.

Nya took a shaky breath, took out her phone, and snapped a picture. She'll post her discoveries on Instagram later. Right now, tests needed to be run.

She carefully opened the box and held a scanner above the sausage. She slowly waved it back and forth till it let out a quiet beeping noise. After it sounded, she could've sworn the sausage _twitched._

Nya quickly closed up the box again, and went to the screen. _Load, load, load,_ she thought, desperately wanting answers. After a painful minute, the result popped on the screen. She sighed in relief, and opened the file to read it. Her eyes scanned the page, and Nya shook her head in disbelief.

"But...but that's not possible!" she cried. "There has to be an explanation!"

But there wasn't. While the results said the sausage still contained the regular sausage meat, it was also growing organs, veins, a brain, a heart! It was becoming _alive_.

Nya scrolled down, looking for any traces of some toxic chemical that could have caused this reaction. But while it had the slightest trace of mercury, nothing else could be identified. But she realized what it must really be: _sorcery_.

"I have to tell the others!" Nya exclaimed. "If Caudeth intends to turn every sausage into living, breathing monsters, we're in like, HUGE trouble!"

She looked back at the sausage and suddenly let out a gasp. It had a mouth! With razor sharp teeth!

Nya grabbed a bunch of random heavy books and put them on the lid of the box.

"They need to know now!" Nya ran out of the room in such a hurry, she forget to take her gloves and lab coat off.

After she left, the sausage rolled to the side of the cage. And with it's newly growing teeth, it began to chew.

* * *

After breakfast, the ninja met Sensei Wu at the training room. It was about half the size of a standard gym, walls lined with various different exercise machinery with missing parts and weapon racks. A small sketchy training course took up one half of the room, and dueling mats took up the other. They began with running a lap around the room, stretching, and were now practicing with their choice weapons on a row of dummies Wu set up.

"In order to understand your enemy, you must understand yourself," Sensei Wu lectured, walking up and down the row of training ninja. "Recognize your strength; acknowledge your weakness. Find. Your. Center!"

"Is Nya still looking at that sausage?" asked Jay while whirling his nunchuks.

"Yes, my little sausage," said Sensei, "So, she may not be joining us this fine morning."

Ironically, it was at that moment Nya burst into the room. "Guys," she said between pants, "The sausage... It's alive!" Her expression clearly said stated she was telling the truth.

"What do you mean 'alive'?" asked Jay as everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to Nya.

"It had a brain, heart, veins, teeth, everything!"

"Teeth?"

"Yeah, I locked it in a box."

"Like, that?!" asked Cole, eyebrows raised. He was pointing at the strange, round shape slowly making its way toward them.

Nya bit her lip. "Yeah..."

Lloyd shot it with an bright green energy ball, and it flew right into the approaching sausage. The only result was the sausage saying something in some sausage language:"Sajw enh qopd zsap." He said with an evil grin,"Weopz rjol ctola korwm uike hgdoa Caudeth."

"What'd he say?" Skylor asked Carol.

"Uh, 'You're powers don't affect me. Caudeth will rule and you will be defeated and suffer in his reign.'..." Carol interpreted.

"This does not compute," Zane was saying, "why don't our powers affect them? It would seem logical if they did, because these are just sausages."

"They ain't just sausages! These here have dark magic, so it always possible for them to be immune to our powers, y'all." stated Kai.

"Oh! For once you used your brain!" Tia mocked.

"Uh, guys, the sausage is escaping!" said Cole anxiously.

"We must catch the sausage, my little sausages, so we can hopefully get some information from him." Sensei commented.

That being said, Lloyd tried creating an energy barrier around the sausage, and it worked to his surprise. It let out a frustrated growl and pressed up against the barrier, causing it to crackle.

"Time for answers!" Tia exclaimed dramatically. She leaned over the edge of the barrier and gave the sausage her most deathly glare. "Where is your master hiding?!"

Carol translated this into sausage language.

The sausage smiled even wider. "Regs nikv caoti sssnok upkno! Ens treds onhs gvil kjhop?"

" 'I don't know where he is. Why would I tell you if I did?' " Carol translated.

"Ugh! Useless!" Tia tried a different question. "When will he attack?"

Carol translated again, and the sausage garbled back it's answer.

" 'Why would I know any of those answers? I was separated from the group, remember?' "

The sausage crossed its skinny arms.

"Let's bring it back to the lab. Maybe I can find something with a few more tests," Nya offered. "There has to be something in its makeup that can give us a clue of where Caudeth is or what he's doing."

"Good idea," said Carol. "That's all we can really do at this point."

Lloyd formed the barrier into a cage around the sausage, and he picked it up. "This has to be the strangest hostage in the history of hostages," he said.

"It is," stated Zane, eyes glowing as he examined the web's search results.

While Lloyd went with Nya to secure the sausage in the lab, Sensei continued the training session.

"Now let's spilt into groups of two and spar. The one without a partner can spar with Lloyd when he comes back."

Tia and Jay immediately paired up, being the one thing they can agree on.

"You're SO going down, Jay Garbage-Stalker!" Tia taunted.

Jay gritted his teeth. "We'll see about that, Tia-Trash."

The others made sure to keep a far distance from them at all times.

* * *

After they were done with training for that day, and Sensei Wu had struggled between the dueling Tia and Jay and commanded them to stop, it was already the middle of the afternoon. Sensei Wu called them up saying, "My little sausages, I see that you have worked hard, but not hard enough! Tomorrow, you will train even more, and I believe that we can defeat Caudeth and his army of mutant sausages. But, I believe we will need extra help on this fateful journey!"

"Not Mac!" Lloyd burst out. Everyone stared at him, and he shrunk down lower in his chair.

"Yes." Sensei replied, ignoring Lloyd's obvious horror. "And also a new sausage, Ivy, the Master of Invisibility. They actually called me up first saying that they saw the befuddlement we are in and would like to help."

Lloyd gave Carol his signature Spock glare, and she winced.

"So, can we have lunch now?" Cole complained impatiently. "I'm tired of skipping all these meals!"

"I suppose you can get something, young sausage." said Sensei with an exasperated sigh.

"Yas!" exclaimed Cole as he ran inside to the kitchen. "Cake, here I come!"

"What do you think he'll do when he finds out there's no cake?" Nya murmured to the others.

"I don't know, but I don't plan to be here to find out!" Skylor said, quickly leaving the room.

* * *

 **Hopefully you didn't find that chapter too morbid. If you did, than maybe K+ wasn't the best rating for this…XD And that thing about hotel breakfast is true. I went to a hotel once and their definition of a free breakfast was a yogurt and a muffin. A bit disappointing, but my muffin was chocolate chip so hey! I can't complain. Review if you wish and have a swag weekend!**


	6. Captures and Escapes

Chapter 6: Captures and Escapes

 **Whenever I go into the sunshine, you know what happens? The rain comes, fast, hard, and furious. At this point, I just give up. Where are you spring sunshine?! :P Well, I really don't have much else to rant about…so let's get to the chapter! Before that, I want to give a shout-out to our first follower for this story, Lady Slytherin-Nia! Thank you so much for your support! Free cookies and waffles! (::) (::) (#) (#)**

 **GLACIER3: Aw, thank you so much! This story was such an instant and crazy idea, and we're so happy to have made it this far! More free cookies and waffles! (::) (#) (I'm very hungry right now, if you didn't notice. XD)**

* * *

Tia dug through the pantry furiously, looking for something that can be scraped together for a meal. She was on the accursed dinner duty tonight, and she really wanted to make dinner better than Jay Garbage's garbage breakfast. So far, all she found were soup cans and Chef Boyardee ravioli.

Right when she was about to grab a can from the cupboard, sparks flew into her vision and she almost toppled off the chair she was standing on.

 _Not another one,_ she thought helplessly. Sometimes Tia had visions; most from the past, some from the present, and very rarely, the future. Always happening at the oddest and most inconvenient of times.

She slowly sat down on the chair, put her head between her knees, and closed her eyes. She found they were less tiring if she didn't fight them.

Fuzzy and distant, like in a dream, Tia saw the inside of a partly ruined stone tower. A storm was raging outside, sealing any chance of knowing what was beyond the window. The room was bare save for an old, dusty purple velvet chair and a chipped stone table. Suddenly, two figures came into the room: one taller, wearing a long dark cape and angrily ranting about something, the other, short and squat, and round... _like a giant sausage_. Soon Tia could vaguely make out the conversation.

"As soon as they're all formed, we attack those ninjas' headquarters! Once they're finished off, the city! They stand no chance against my army!" The tall cloaked figure turned, and though Tia never saw him in person, she knew it was Caudeth. He clasped his hands behind his back, eerie violet eyes glimmering evilly. "And in turn, you and your soldiers can devour however many humans as you like."

The sausage commander bowed, pleased with the idea of revenge. He rasped in an attempt on human language, "Whens willi wev be reado?"

Caudeth smiled wickedly, and looked beyond the window at the raging storm. "In three days time, we will be strong and prepared." He stopped talking suddenly, and looked around worriedly. "Someone's watching us!"

At exactly that moment, the vision faded away, and Tia was left blinking spots from her vision in the ninjas' kitchen as she raised her head. _This is bad,_ she thought feverishly. _Very, very-_

"Hey, Tia," said Carol suddenly, walking into the kitchen. Tia twitched in surprise. "Just came to see if you need any help..." she trailed off, looking at Tia's face. "You okay? You don't look so good-"

"I'm fine!" Tia said quickly, jumping to her feet. "Just stressed with the limited dinner options, that's all." She told herself she would tell Carol about the vision later, after she had enough time to think about it. "And yes, I could really use your help." She gestured at the cupboard. "All I can find is this canned tasteless mush!"

Carol grabbed a soup can and some spices. "I have an idea on what to do with this stuff. Let's get started!"

* * *

"Yes! Dinner!" exclaimed Cole when they were all gathered back around the dining table. Tia and Carol had managed to scrap together a dinner of beef and vegetable stew made from the canned items, as well as a side of toast. No one complained about the hastily made meal, which was so far a good sign.

"Can I get everyone to agree that _my meal_ was a billion times better than Jay Garbage's ridiculous breakfast this morning?" Tia said after everyone got a share of stew.

"Hey! I already said that was _all we had_!" Jay objected. "Besides, you had help!"

"But at least we put _effort_ into it!" Tia said, flipping her braid.

Jay was going to say something back when Lloyd piped up. "Sensei, do we really need to enlist Mac's help?" he asked, looking over at Wu. "I'm pretty sure we have this sausage situation _completely_ under control."

"He is a useful member on the team, my sausage." Sensei Wu replied, examining a piece of toast before taking a bite.

"But, he's weird! Like, he's got major prob-"

"Hey, Lloyd," a voice interrupted from the doorway. "Been gossiping about me again?"

Everyone swiveled around in their seats towards the new voice. A boy with messy black hair and bright blue eyes leaned lazily against the dining room doorway.

" _You_!" Lloyd exclaimed, standing up. "How…how did _you_ get in here!?"

Mac rolled his eyes, and held up a key. "Skillzzzz." As well as being the Master of the Blue Flames, Mac was also Kai and Nya's youngest brother. He occasionally joined the other ninja to help with side missions, though Lloyd never seemed exactly happy to see him. Lloyd was convinced Mac was after his sister Carol, and he horrified of the idea of Carol and that quote "cheese-loving psycho" being an _item_.

" _Normal_ people knock on the door! And _normal_ people don't have cheese obsession problems like you do!" Lloyd interjected.

" _I_ don't have problems with cheese; _cheese_ has problems with _me_. Also, I did knock, but no one answered."

"I don't believe your words!" Lloyd gave Mac his signature Spock glare.

"Sausage, sit down." said Sensei Wu with an exasperated sigh. "He is helping us."

Lloyd sat down slowly, but was still glaring at Mac.

"Is Ivy also here?" asked Wu, turning to Mac.

"Yeah, she wasn't that far behind me," Mac replied.

As soon as he said that, a girl with long dark hair with a small braid on the side instantly appeared in the middle of the room. "Hello!" she said cheerfully with a mischievous smile. "Looks like I'm just in time for dinner."

Everyone at the table jumped, except for Carol. She had become used to Ivy's appearances. Being the Master of Invisibility, Ivy had a tendency to make grand entrances.

"Hey, Ivy, Mac," Carol scooted out of her seat and got up to give them each a hug. "Good to see you both!"

When Carol hugged Mac, Lloyd looked like he was about to have a seizure, throw up, and break something all at once.

"I sense Lloyd is experiencing the early stages of a heart attack," Zane whispered to Kai and Jay, who were sitting next to him.

"We were just having dinner," said Sensei Wu, trying to lighten the mood. "You're welcome to join us, young sausages."

Ivy squeezed in between Skylor and Carol, and Mac sat at the end of the table next to Cole, Lloyd giving him a supremely disgusted Spock glare the whole way.

"So," began Ivy, filling her bowl with stew, "did you guys find out anything interesting?"

"Well," Nya began, scraping the bottom of her bowl with a fork, "we found one of Caudeth's sausage experiments. I discovered that he is making them alive, and into soldiers. That sausage has fighting instincts like no other, and they're immune to our power directly." Nya rattled on, listing random discoveries. "Their cell development increases rapidly in darkness, and they have significant hearing. They have their own strange language, but ours seems to be picking up English really fast with Carol's help. Its teeth can cut through a maximum of steel one inch thick, and they eat...they eat..." Nya broke off, looking a little green.

"Human flesh," finished Skylor, her voice very quiet.

Nya nodded. "I accidentally cut my finger on its new iron cage, and when some blood dripped in there, it went completely insane, and started biting at the bars." She smiled weakly. "That's how I know it can almost bite through metal."

There was a long, hushed silence. Then, always being the one to burst out randomly, Kai exclaimed, "I say we dispose of this here vile creature, y'all! It's more trouble than we need!"

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I agree with Kai," said Jay. "That thing could've killed you! We can't risk having it any longer."

Nya sighed, but nodded. "I'll give it a lethal injection right away tomorrow."

"Weeell," said Ivy slowly, "that was definitely…interesting. Is that all you found?"

"I just found that we're all gonna be like this slice of toasted bread if those things are attacking the city in less than thirty-six hours," Tia said casually, holding up a slice of toast.

"Wait, what? Where did you hear this?" Mac asked.

"A vision. Caudeth was saying he'll take over the city in three days' time with his sausage army."

"This was something you just thought to mention now?" exclaimed Jay with annoyance.

"I was waiting for the perfect dramatic moment, Stalker. And considering everyone's reactions just now, I found the perfect timing!"

"This is going to make things more complicated, isn't it?" Cole thought aloud.

"I'm sure there's some way to defeat them. We faced bigger threats before," voiced Carol. "Any ideas?"

Everyone looked at each other blankly. After a few seconds of awkward silence, Skylor cleared her throat.

"Maybe we could sleep on it. It's getting pretty late. We can hold a council tomorrow after training," Skylor suggested.

"I sense that is the best current tactic we can take at this moment in time," Zane agreed.

"Come on, Ivy," Skylor said, standing up, "you can stay in Nya's and my room."

Everyone began to disperse to their different rooms, Lloyd and Mac exchanging glares the whole way out. Soon Sensei Wu was the only one left in the room. He glanced down at his empty tea cup.

"If I'm not to have sausages, at least there is tea," he said to himself as he got up and headed to the kitchen to brew a batch. He opened the cupboard and discovered it was completely empty.

Sensei Wu sighed with exasperation. "Fate has a cruel sense of humor."

* * *

That night, the sausage had an idea! It would escape to go find the rest of his sausage buddies! What's the point of being a loner sausage if you can go to more sausages? He ate through the metal bars and slipped out of the cage. Finding the window was partly open, it squeezed out and ran out into the forest. His only problem was that he accidentally knocked over a bottle of some ink stuff (whatever that was) and stepped in it, leaving a trail of footprints.

* * *

Nya went in the lab where the sausage was supposed to be early the next morning. Her yawn turned into a gasp when she saw there was no sign of it other than the chew marks on the cage. _Oh dang it, the sausage escaped!_ She thought. _I should have gotten rid of it last night..._ Then she saw tiny foot prints leading out the window, but they eventually faded away. _I need to tell the rest of the ninja._

Just then, Kai walked into the temporary lab. "Howdy, Sis, did y'all get rid of that vile creature?"

"No," the Water Ninja replied, feeling slightly panicked. "Apparently, he escaped last night!"

"Ugh! Those sausages! I ain't ever gonna eat one again, y'all! Makes me wonder why Sensei even still calls us 'his sausages'!"

"Maybe you should ask him," Nya murmured while she grabbed a cloth to clean up the bottle of spilled motor oil.

"I will, y'all!" Then he walked back while adjusting his cowboy hat.

* * *

" ...and that's how Cole broke the oven," Skylor said, finishing her tale. She and Ivy were sitting on the top steps of the stairwell, catching up before Sensei's training session.

"How did you get the burnt cake out?" Ivy asked.

"We didn't."

"Wow," Ivy said, laughing. "How many ovens did you go through again?"

"Seven. Honesty, we-"

Just then, Nya rounded the corner in a rush and almost ran right into them.

"Oh, hi Nya," said Skylor. She looked her up and down. "What's the rush?"

"The...sausage," Nya said between pants. "It's... escaped!"

Ivy and Skylor exchanged a look. "It's not still in the house, is it?" Ivy asked cautiously.

Nya shook her head. "No, it went out the window I had cracked open."

"That's a relief!" commented Skylor. "I don't think there's much to do about it now, but hope it stays out of trouble."

Ivy suddenly sat bolt upright, a thought crossing her mind. "Uh, Nya, what direction was the sausage going?"

Nya shrugged. "I don't know for sure, but I think it went towards Zegda Forest Park, which is about south..." Nya trailed off, realizing what Ivy was getting at. She paled. "Just behind that park is New Ninjago City!"

Skylor and Ivy quickly got up.

"We need to raise the alarm!" Skylor said. "That sausage could kill someone!"

"I'll prepare the Bounty!" said Nya, running off.

"I'll start tracking down that monster!" Ivy exclaimed, racing down the stairs.

Skylor sighed. "I guess that means _I'm_ raising the alarm."

* * *

Skylor ran around trying to find Sensei Wu, to tell him about where the sausage was heading. Then, she finally found him in the kitchen, eating the last sausage from Joe.

"Sensei!" she was saying in a rush, "The sausage escaped last night and we think that he's heading for New Ninjago City!"

"Really?" he asked curiously, setting the roasted sausage down slowly.

Skylor nodded and said, "Nya's preparing the Bounty, and Ivy's trying to find him before he gets there, even though it seems unlikely because he had a head start."

"I believe the rest of the team members are in the living room. Quickly, go tell them, my sausage. You must stop this threat immediately."

* * *

Ivy, while being invisible, was trying to find the sausage. She was in the Zegda Forest Park, which was full of closely packed trees, therefore making it hard to get around. She spotted some more foot prints where the ground was softer. _At least I'm going the right way,_ she thought. Then, she saw another pair of foot prints, but they definitely weren't from a sausage. _Caudeth_.

After some more time passed by, she spotted a tall man in a long dark cape torn a little in a corner through the thick trees. She saw him create a ball of dark purple energy in his hand, summoning a sausage; this one was a lot bigger than the one she was trying to find.

"Sausage Commander!" said Caudeth in a cold voice. "I can feel the presence of one of those ninja. I want you to find him or her and bring them to me!"

"Yes, master."

 _Ugh! I need to move!_ But in her panic she accidentally tripped over a large tree root and lost her focus, making her visible once more.

"Well, well, well, what have we got here?" said the cold voice from behind her. Caudeth then used his powers to hold her in the air up in front of him. She struggled to break free from his force, but it was almost impossible to move in the magic's icy grip. "Oh, just the ninja I was looking for." He smiled evilly and tied her up with several magic ropes. "Don't even try to get out of those. It's pointless."

Glaring at him, Ivy rasped, "You won't get away with this! The rest of the ninja will defeat you!"

"Oh, so they're coming this way? Thank you!" He replied, still with that disturbing evil smirk on his face. "I do _love_ visitors." He roughly bound her magically to a nearby tree with the last few ropes.

 _I shouldn't have said anything!_ Ivy thought helplessly. _Maybe if I turn invisible..._ She tried turning invisible, but it was useless. The ropes made her unable to use her powers, similar to vengestone.

 _This is going to be awhile,_ she thought miserably as she watched the sausage soldiers march into camp.

* * *

 **That had to be the longest chapter yet! Hope all the OCs aren't getting too confusing. XD Ivy is actually an OC made by one of our fellow Ninjago fangirl friends, so if you see this, partner, shout-out to you! ;) Till next Saturday, have a great week everyone! Be sure to review if you have any thoughts!**


	7. More than Uno Problem

Chapter 7: More than Uno Problem

 **Warning! Minor blood/violence in this chapter! It's** _ **very**_ **minor and shouldn't be a problem, but I just wanted to warn those who may not have a stomach for that kind of thang since this is a K+ rating.**

 **Welp, that's one way to start the author's note. I noticed my notes are mostly me rambling about random things in my life, so let's get to it! First off, do not join your school's track team unless you** _ **really**_ **know what you're doing. I made the mistake of thinking it could be** _ **fun**_ **. I mean, the practices take the word** _ **brutal**_ **to a whole new level! I don't think I have legs anymore. 0_o Second…well, actually, I don't have a second. Probably better that way; this is getting long. XD Anyways, enjoy! Or don't, however you feel about this story! :P**

 **GLACIER3: Yep, it's a dangerous time to be a human…XD And I'm always hungry! Speaking of that, some sausages and waffles sound good right now. :)**

* * *

"Uno!" Lloyd said triumphantly, waving his one card in the air before putting it down on the stack. He looked smugly at Mac, who pointedly ignored him by staring intently at his three cards.

"Y'all got to be a-kiding me!" Kai exclaimed, frustrated. "You're always winnin' this here game!" He threw his seven cards on the table.

"This game sucks," said Cole, throwing down his cards as well. "I knew we should've played Monopoly!"

"Or Candyland," Jay piped up.

The ninjas' main living room was a moderately sized room with scattered sofas arranged haphazardly around a large coffee table, which was now covered in numerous cards. Kai, Jay, Lloyd, Mac, and Cole played Uno, with Zane diligently keeping score. Carol and Tia sat a little distance away, skimming through the latest fashion magazine.

"They call this a dress?" Carol said, wrinkling her nose. She pointed to a frilly lilac purple dress filling the page.

"I know, right?" said Tia, looking disgusted. "And $500 too! They just don't have a sense of fashion these days!" She dramatically flipped her braid. "At least the world can depend on me to always have a spectacular taste of style!"

Carol raised an eyebrow. "Really? What about that time you bought that shirt with those crazy bows all over it…"

"I was coming back from an eye check-up! I didn't see anything that clearly!"

Just then, Skylor burst through the wide doorway.

"Everyone, to the Bounty, now!" she ordered, looking out of breath.

"Whoa, what's going on?" asked Cole, looking up from the Monopoly board he was setting up.

Skylor took a deep breath before continuing. "The monster sausage, it's escaped, and it's heading to New Ninjago City!"

Everyone immediately burst out into shouts of "What?!", "How?", "Heck no!", and "They're gonna die, y'all!"

Skylor waved her hands in the air, trying to get their attention back. "Ivy is already tracking it down, so we can call in on her later to locate its position. But right now, people's lives are on the line, and every second counts! We'll discuss plans on the way. But we need to go!"

Everyone showed their agreement by hastily slipping on gloves, grabbing weapons and tools, and taking their radio devices. They ran out to the Bounty, which was already up and running, thanks to Nya.

"Hop on!" she shouted over the whirl of engines.

Once they were all aboard, the Bounty took off, heading towards the city. While Nya and Zane stayed above in the bridge to steer the ship, the rest gathered below decks to discuss a plan of action.

"Let's contact Ivy first," suggested Mac. "Find out what's going on."

"She remembered her ear piece, right?" asked Carol.

"She wouldn't have left without it," Skylor answered confidently.

"Okay, let's give this a go," said Cole. He held a radio up and said, "Ivy, can you hear me? Where are you?"

No response. Everyone looked at each other worriedly. Cole tried again.

"Ivy, this is Cole. Come in." Still, no response.

"Maybe she lost it or it broke," Jay offered hopefully.

Tia shook her head, pale and shaky. She had just had a flash of Ivy bound up, struggling to escape. And it was obvious who to blame. "Guys, she's in trouble. Big trouble."

* * *

Ivy was thinking about all the possible ways to escape the ropes, but nothing worked! She was just now hoping that the ninja would find a way to stop Caudeth. Even though it seemed impossible, but she knew that everyone had to have a weakness. She just had to find Caudeth's and tell the rest of the team. Easier said than done.

"Sqej adu trwq ytr!" said a nearby sausage.

"Yes, it is time! Everything is in place faster than I could predict," replied Caudeth. He then made another fist full of dark energy and turned toward his army of sausages. "Sausages, yesterday you were about to be devoured by humans. Today, you will have your revenge!" The sausages cheered for their great sorcerer leader as he then shot a dark lightning bolt in the air. Immediately, dark rain clouds swirled around the sky, forming a powerful hurricane. A roll of thunder boomed. "We strike at dusk!"

The sausages were hyped for dusk, but Ivy defiantly wasn't. _I hope the others have a plan. I need to figure out the chink in this sorcerer's armor before it's too late..._ She thought, biting her lip as the army raised their weapons to the stormy sky.

* * *

Back on the Bounty, panic erupted among the ninja.

"We have to find her!" Carol exclaimed, eyes wide in fear. "She could be killed!"

"But we don't know where she is," said Jay. "Ivy could be in that creep's hideout, for all we know!"

"He might use her against us!" panicked Lloyd. "Like, kill her if we don't surrender!"

"But whata 'bout the city, y'all!" Kai interrupted. "The darned sausage might be there already!"

"This is Ivy's life we're talking about," Skylor objected. "We can't just leave her!"

"I really hate to say this," said Cole quietly, "but we don't even know if she still is alive. It might be too late to save her."

There was a silence, then Mac burst in, shaking his head. "I've only known Ivy for a short time," he said, "but I can tell that she's tough. She wouldn't let herself die like that!"

"I agree!" Tia said. "My gut tells me she's still alive and able to be rescued. I say we find her! Where she is, Caudeth is, and maybe we can figure a way to stop this attack."

"But we can't leave the city undefended!" argued Cole.

Soon a heated argument broke out between them. Skylor, Tia, and Mac wanted to go after Ivy, while Cole, Kai, and Lloyd said their top priority was protecting the city. Carol and Jay stood back against the far wall, not sure which side to choose. Just when things were about to get physical, the door opened, and Nya and Zane stepped in. They all froze: Lloyd, who was about to punch Mac; Skylor, who was about to shove Cole, and Kai, who was about to throw a fireball at Tia.

"Am I missing something?" Nya asked coldly, taking in the scene. "I thought we were fighting Caudeth, not each other."

The two groups quickly backed away from each other, embarrassed.

"Uh, who's a-driving the ship, sis?" asked Kai, looking from Nya to Zane.

Nya rolled her eyes. "Autopilot, duh!" Then she took on a more serious tone. "Would anyone like to tell me what is going on?"

Jay spoke up. "Ivy's been captured by Caudeth!"

Nya's eyes widened in surprise, but she quickly hid it. "Well, isn't the solution obvious?"

"What?" everyone asked at the same time.

Nya cleared her throat. "You three," she pointed at Tia, Skylor, and Mac, "will go after Ivy. I'll use her radio to track down her location, and you can use your dragons to get there. Don't arrange an attack; it needs to be a rescue mission only for you'd be completely outnumbered. The rest of us," she gestured at the room, "will continue on to New Ninjago City as planned to set up a defense against the sausage and any others that dare to try and enter. Any questions?"

Everyone stayed silent. "Good," finished Nya. "Let's get to work." She started to leave, then paused, and turned back around. "I almost forgot. I just got a video call from Joe."

* * *

The group had gathered in the bridge to listen to Joe's message.

"Ninja," Joe was saying on a pre-recorded message, "there's a storm coming; it doesn't look natural. The other police officers and I think Caudeth is behind this. You need to avoid travel by air at all costs. We didn't catch sight of your sausage yet, coast is clear but we have reason to believe it won't be for long. Also, if you find anything else, let me know. Joe out!"

"I sense Joe is right; this is Caudeth," said Zane, eyes a-glow. "My scanners are picking up sources of dark magic in this storm."

"Guys, I think you should head out now before this gets any worse," Nya told Tia, Skylor, and Mac. "We'll risk it and continue on to the city by air; there really isn't another option at this point." Nya turned to the main computer and began to search for Ivy's location. After a few agonized minutes in which everyone was fiddling impatiently, she let out a triumphant, "A-ha! Found her!"

The trio gathered around the computer.

"Uh, can you evaluate, sis?" Mac said skeptically. "All I can make out is a blinking dot on the screen."

"She's in the northern outskirts of Zegda Forest Park, not far from south New Ninjago City." Nya said, eyes glued to the screen. "The coordinates are-"

" 'kay, we're on it! Don't need confusing numbers and such!" Tia burst in, giving a fake salute. "Come, peeps, we have a rescue mission to initiate!" She grabbed Mac's and Skylor's arms and began to drag them to the top deck.

"But we probably need those coordinates…" Skylor started to argue.

"Nah, more trouble than they're worth. Besides, I can't waste anymore of my precious time doing nothing! Let's go!"

The others gave shouts of "Good luck!", "Keep your eyes open!", "Don't do anything really stupid," and " 'May the force be with you' " as the trio left the room.

"Yes, Mac's gone!" Lloyd burst out. "Now let's get to the city!"

* * *

Tia, Skylor, and Mac rode their elemental dragons above the dense forest, scanning the ground. Rain had already began to come down, and the wind was picking up.

"Hey! I found a clearing!" Mac yelled to the others through the wind's howling.

The three of them dove down towards the small forest clearing and hopped off their dragons as they neared the ground. The dragons evaporated in puffs of orange, purple, and crimson. They then started searching between the trees for any sign of Ivy.

"Ugh!" Tia made an annoyed face as the thick mud squashed under her feet. "I just got these boots!"

"I think the bigger problem is how we're going to avoid leaving trails and making the whole forest hear us coming," Mac said with an eyeroll.

Tia scowled. "But these were seventy-two yhen! It took me _months_ to save up enough!"

"Hey, I found footprints!" Skylor said in a loud whisper a few feet ahead of them, pointing to a set in the thick mud.

"These definitely aren't Ivy's," said Tia, joining her and crouching down to get a better look. "They're too small."

"They must be from a sausage. And I never thought I'd say that," Mac said, looking up with a thoughtfully confused look on his face.

"Let's follow it!" Skylor suggested. "They have to lead to _somewhere_ near Ivy."

"Okay, let's go!" Tia said. Then a mischievous grin spread across her face. "And, I think I know how we can escape Caudeth before he even knows we're there..."

* * *

Caudeth looked on at the preparing sausage soldiers. They were sparing, shooting targets with arrows, daggers, and spears, and even wrestling. _They're strong,_ he thought, _and getting stronger by the second. Soon I'll bring all of Ninjago to their knees, I'll get the realm crystal, and save my brother._

He summoned a soldier with his magic, and soon it appeared, giving him a salute. "Yres?"

"Are all the precautions in place?" Caudeth asked.

The sausage nodded eagerly. "Fvre uhg jok saugh poli!"

"Very good. You are dismissed."

The sausage ran off towards the sparring ring. Three hours till dusk. Four hours till victory.

Caudeth turned his attention to the prisoner. She was slumped in her bounds, dark hair hiding her face, having given up escape a while ago. He tried interrogating her earlier, to no use. She wouldn't budge. Maybe she needed some...persuasion. He pulled out a long knife.

Just when he was about to head over towards her, a sausage general came running up to him, saluting him. "Ter?" it garbled, English still in development.

"What?" Caudeth asked, exasperated.

"Tree ninga hav en sotted ust south of e campy."

Caudeth digested this information for a second, then a wicked smile spread across his face. "Three ninja want to pay us a visit, eh? How quaint. Tell the others to be aware. We'll be waiting for them." The sausage nodded and ran off.

Caudeth walked slowly towards Ivy, twirling the knife in his hand. When he got closer she looked up, eyes defiant. _Ninja, always so hopeful... Fools!_

"So it seems like your friends are nearby. Isn't that sweet?" Caudeth said mockingly.

A flash of fear lit the girl's face, but was quickly hidden. "You won't be able to trick them!" she said strongly.

"Oh, but I already have. Let's help them get here faster, shall we?" Without warning, Caudeth plunged the dagger into Ivy's side. Ivy opened her mouth to scream, but held it in. _He wants me to scream,_ she realized, _to make the others fall right into his trap._

Caudeth pulled the knife out, furious at her refusal to cry out. He striked her across the face, giving her a bloody nose, but she remained silent, glaring at him with cold hatred. He lost it. He pressed the knife to her throat and hissed, "Call to your friends right now or your life is over!"

Ivy swallowed. Then she shouted, "Don't come for me! It's a tr-" Caudeth pushed her to the ground, hard. Ivy gritted her teeth. She tried to get up, but couldn't find the strength.

"Why you little-" Caudeth started to speak, but then stopped, tilting his head. He smiled. "They're coming. Maybe you're not completely useless after all."

* * *

 **Ba-bam, it just got real! And is there some kind of currency in Ninjago mentioned in the show? I made up _yhen_ just now because I don't remember if there was or not. Well, that's not too big of a detail here, right? After all, it's just Tia complaining about her now muddy boots. XD As always, have a great week and be sure to leave a review! Later, peeps! **


	8. I Went Sky Diving

Chapter 8: I Went Sky Diving

 **My music keeps freezing. And it's driving-me-INSANE! *turns music off* That's better. But now it's really quiet… Ugh, my life is a struggle. XD Welp, here we are with chapter eight! Bound to be a crazy one! And so many reviews! Thank you so much everyone for your support and positive comments!** **Let's get right to it!**

 **GLACIER3: XD**

 **Fires of Darkness: Aw, thanks! And yep, we specifically specialize in randomness…XD (P.S. May the force be with you…)**

 **Anonymous7: A long story I shalt attempt to shorten for you. XD So, I randomly checked out this book from the library a few years ago— _(The Tapestry #1): The Hound of Rowan_ by Henry H. Nuff. And the whole sausage epidemic came from one single line in this book, in which the gym teacher famously called his students his "little sausages." From there I went to discuss this with Kendra, and we then wondered on what it would be like if Sensei Wu did this (yes, these are the kind of things we discuss in our spare time :D). And then this whole story came together like that! *snaps fingers, realizes I can't snap, claps instead* So there you (and if anyone else is reading this part) have it! Now you know how weird our story(s) roots are! XD**

 **Jens: Yas, frying pans are the best weapon! I mean,** _ **Tangled**_ **proved it! XD And as for Kai's accent, that's also a long story. We used to make stop-motions the longest time ago, and in one we thought it'll be hilarious to give each ninja an accent. And well, Kai's southern accent just never went away after that...:P And don't worry about Jay and Tia, they're just frenemies. Well…that is, without the "friend" part. XD And yep, it's all "just another day in Ninjago!"**

* * *

Skylor, Mac, and Tia were continuing to follow the sausage's tracks, sure that they would lead them to Caudeth's hideout. So far they had traveled deep into the forest, where the trees are denser and the air cooler. The trees boughs hung heavily above them, weighed down with moss. It was just the kind of forest from a horror film.

"This place gives me the creeps," commented Skylor as they walked on, looking anxiously at the trees.

"I know, right?" agreed Tia. "The perfect setting for an evil mastermind! Just look at how huge that crow is!"

The crow in question gave an annoyed squawk and flew off its perch on an old stump and then deeper into the forest, wings flapping loudly.

"So, Tia," interrupted Mac seriously, "what exactly is your plan again?"

Tia smiled slyly. "Once we reach their camp, I'll freeze time while you two get Ivy. Then we escape and, whoopee! Recuse mission complete!"

"You're sure you can do that?" asked Skylor, concerned. "Something like that can take away a lot of energy."

Tia's smile wavered for a second, but she said, "Of course! Granted, the longest I've ever done it was a minute, and that was with superb concentration. So, you'll have to hurry."

Skylor and Mac nodded, ready for the challenge. They walked for a ways till they saw campfire light in the distance, and large, round shapes moving around the campfires.

"There," Mac whispered, nodding. They crept closer to get a better look. Tons of sausage soldiers swarmed the camp, training for battle. They looked around and flinched when they saw the slumped figure tied to a large pine tree. Skylor had to bite her lip to keep from crying out when they saw Caudeth's knife at her throat.

"Don't come for me!" Ivy shouted frantically. "It's a tr-" Caudeth smacked her face, throwing her to the ground. Mac jumped up immediately, bristling, but Tia grabbed his arm and pulled him back down.

"They know we're here," said Tia in a loud whisper, "but they don't know what's coming. On the count of three, we'll jump out into the camp and I'll freeze things up like a popsicle! We need to run to the clearing where we landed as fast as possible and take off. Okay?"

Mac and Skylor nodded, determined. Tia took a deep breath, and faced the camp. "Let's do this. One...two...THREE!" They jumped out of the heavy brush and rolled onto their feet in the middle of the camp. The second of pure confusion among Caudeth and the sausages was enough time. Tia raised her arms, purple and gold light spiraling out of her hands. Everything froze, except the other ninja. "Go," she rasped, sweat already beading on her forehead.

Mac and Skylor ran towards Ivy, who was starting to get up weakly. She saw them and her eyes widened in terror. "Stop!" she said desperately. "You're going to-"

Mac and Skylor stumbled on a concealed trip wire hidden in the dirt. A large swinging rope with a boulder attached sprang from the trees. Mac and Skylor easily ducked it, but it swung past them and right into Tia, knocking her backwards into a tree, unconscious.

"No!" Skylor cried as Tia's time spell was instantly lifted. The sausages began to stir and blink, trying to figure out what happened. "Get Ivy!" Mac yelled to Skylor. "I'll get Tia!"

He ran to Tia and scooped her up in his arms, while Skylor cut off Ivy's bounds with a small knife and helped her to her feet, putting an arm around Ivy's shoulders to keep her steady. "Run to the clearing!" Mac shouted across the camp, already taking off.

"Get them, get them!" roared Caudeth, realizing what had happened. And so, Skylor, Ivy, and Mac, carrying Tia, took off, literally running for their lives.

* * *

On the Bounty, the rest of the ninja were trying to get to New Ninjago City. The storm had picked up even more the past few minutes, and the ship was being rocked mercilessly in the gale and rain coming from its direction. The ninja huddled below decks, trying to find something to hang onto for support.

"Y'all, how are we suppose' to find this oversized sausage in all of Ninjago?!" Kai complained. "And in the middle of a darn storm?!"

"Kai, you just need to use the power of positive thinking!" Jay replied happily from where he sat on an old bench as the ship was rocked roughly to the side.

Kai rolled his eyes thinking, _How in deforestation is this person so happy when the world is at stake_!?

Zane then said from the other side of the room, "My scanners are going out of control! It's the... dark... magic..." He then turned off with a zzzrrrr…, sliding down the wooden wall.

"Zane? Hello?" asked Lloyd, waving his hand in front of Zane's face.

"No use, partner. He's off!" Kai said with anger in his voice.

"You know why this happened?" Jay asked Kai, smiling, "Because, you weren't using the power of positive thinking!"

"It probably would have happened anyway!" Kai yelled. He turned around, arms crossed.

"Listen, I think this dark magic is getting to you!" said Carol, clutching the edge of a table that had been drilled down into the floorboards. "We all just need to chill."

"Chill? _Chill_?! Zane just a-turned off, Ivy's been captured and could be dead! A human-eatin' sausage is runnin' lose in the city, and y'all just want us to _chill_?"

"Guys!" Nya said coming down the rickety wooden stairs to where everyone else was. Excitement was written all over her face. "I think I located where the sausage is in the city! Wait, what's happening here?"

"Kai's being a hothead, as usual," Cole replied boredly.

"Ah, I see."

"Wait, you said you found the sausage?" Jay asked, jumping up from his seat.

Nya nodded, then noticed Zane, "But, what happened to Zane?"

"He turned off 'cause of the dark magic; apparently, it was messing with his programs. Maybe we could try and fix him."

"Yeah. My tools are back in the bridge. Let's check over Zane and see what we'll need."

Kai looked at them, eyebrows raised suggestively. "And there better be no _funny business_!" He said with great emphasis on 'funny business.'

"We're just going to fix him," said Nya with an eyeroll. She knelt down next to Zane's still figure and opened his wrist panel to get a diagnosis of the problem. Jay was about to kneel down beside her, but with a death glare from Kai, resorted to simply standing behind her.

"Then, who's flying the ship?" asked Lloyd, looking worriedly up towards the bridge.

Nya scanned the code scrolling down the tiny screen in Zane's wrist. "You must have a hard time hearing, because it's on autopilot."

"Um, I think someone needs to manually fly this thing, 'cause we're running into the heart of the storm!" Cole said, trying to contain his nervousness. Through the foggy window in the front of the room, the ninja could see the swirling deep indigo clouds streaking with dark violet lighting rushing right into their path.

"I'll go up!" Nya said, immediately pushing herself up and rushing towards the stairs. But with an extremely strong gust of wind, the Bounty pivoted right into it, the shock of it sending Nya flying backwards into Jay. He steadied her as everyone let out shouts of panic. They were right in the storm. The wind was howling, the rain was pouring, and the thunder was rolling loudly.

Nya quickly recovered and rushed back to the narrow stairs. She opened the door at the top and was immediately soaked with pouring rains. She could barely make out the shape of the bridge from across the deck.

 _Shoot!_ Nya thought, as she looked out across the rocking deck. She knew it was too late to be able to turn the ship out of the storm, and there was no way she could make it to the bridge alone with the deck rocking so much. All they could really do at this point was wait it out until they were blown out the other side. She turned back to the stairs to tell the others the bad news but paused when she saw something move in the shadows between two slightly sliding crates. Whipping around, Nya saw something round start crawling towards her. She flinched back with a gasp of horror. She had apparently been wrong; the sausage wasn't in New Ninjago City. It was on the Bounty.

* * *

The distant crashing of bushes startled the small flock of crows, and they flew away with loud squawking. Three figures were making their way through the forest, the fourth being carried. Giant, round, howling creatures led by a sorcerer gave pursuit behind them.

"We should've come across the clearing by now!" panted Mac as they racing through the trees.

"It has to be nearby somewhere!" Skylor said desperately.

Ivy lifted her head. Her face was pale from the the pain in her side. "Maybe if I can turn us all invisible..."

"No," Skylor said firmly. "You're injured; the effort could kill you."

Soon Caudeth came into view behind them, soldiers in tow. "We're gaining on them!" He shouted excitedly. "Let's get 'em!"

"We don't have much time left!" called Skylor, glancing back.

"Then we'll make some!" Tia had regained consciousness, rubbing her head. Mac quickly set her down, and she began to run with them. While running, Tia held her hand out behind her. Instantly, Caudeth and his sausages began to slow down, as if in slow motion. "Mac!" said Tia between gasps. "Make a wall of fire between us and them! Make sure it doesn't spread!"

"Gladly!" he replied. He turned around and shot twin bolts of blue flames from both hands. They landed on the ground, grew, until they had formed a ten foot wall behind them. Tia released her hold on time, and soon Caudeth could be heard cursing behind them.

"That should slow them down!" Tia said. "And I think I see the clearing!" Sure enough, the trees began to get fewer, and a small clearing could be spotted between them.

Just then, a large explosion sounded from behind. The four ninja looked back to see the fire wall burst into tiny sparks, Caudeth behind it wielding dark energy in both hands.

"Keep going!" shouted Skylor, arm tightening around Ivy. "Almost there!" They sprinted even harder, giving up their last burst of energy. Dark purple missiles flew past them, threatening to hit them. Just then, they finally reached the clearing.

"Dragons, now!" said Mac. "Ivy, go on Skylor's!" Right after he said that, one of Caudeth's missiles hit him square in the back, sending him toppling forward.

"Idiot!" hissed Tia. She formed her elemental dragon, and pulled Mac on top of it. She looked over to Skylor's orange one. "Let's fly!"

Caudeth aimed more missiles at them, but was too late. His dark magic missiles were worthlessly blown far off target in the storm's wind. He roared in anger, "I'll get you soon! And then you'll wish you were never born!"

Tia and Skylor steered their dragons into the direction they came from, streaks of orange and purple in the thick clouds.

"We got away," said Ivy in disbelief, looking down at the shrinking sorcerer and his army.

Tia let out a loud whoop, and Skylor and Ivy joined in.

"Is Mac okay?" asked Skylor, looking at his limp form with concern.

"Eh, he's breathing," said Tia, looking at her nails without concern. "I'm sure he'll be fine."

Skylor raised an eyebrow, looked back at the still Mac, and shrugged it off.

"Um, guys?" Ivy asked worriedly, pointing ahead. "What is that?" Thick, black storm clouds swirled in front of them, lightning of dark energy flashing.

Tia gulped. "The source of Caudeth's storm. And that's where the Bounty was heading!"

* * *

"Uh, how l-long was t-t-that there?" Nya stuttered as she saw the sausage trying to eat Zane, although, he couldn't quite get though the titanium. Everyone else was just trying to keep a distance.

Once she had seen the sausage on the deck, she quickly slipped down the stairs and slammed the hatch behind her. She had run down to tell everyone else about it when she saw it had somehow already made its way to the room.

"We don't know. He just appeared out of nowhere and started chewing on Zane." said Lloyd, wide-eyed.

"You wouldn't happen to have the lethal stuff with you?" Cole asked her, pressing himself against the wall.

"No," Nya replied, moving over to stand next to Jay.

"Ya didn't bring it?" asked Kai, sounding panicked. "But ya knew we were a-goin' after it!"

"I was in a hurry at the time, if you didn't notice!" Nya shot back.

"Wait, I know!" said Lloyd. With a wave of his hands, he created another green energy barrier around the sausage.

"Okay, now we need to get rid of that!" exclaimed Jay. "Let's toss it overboard!"

"I say we ROOOAAAST it!" Kai burst in. "This thang is like a cockroach. And cockroaches bounce."

"Emit egasuas sti!" The sausage said, looking up from where it was gnawing on Zane.

"'It's sausage time.'?" Carol translated with an eyebrow raised. _What does that mean?_ She wondered worriedly.

"Oh, great!" Jay said sarcastically. "Now it's garbling nonsense!"

The sausage then closed his beady red eyes and seemed to concentrate very hard. Suddenly, two more sausages came out from behind the first, as if he instantly multiplied. Two more appeared after those two, and then two more after that. He quickly opened his eyes again and gave an evil laugh. " Gnorw erew uoy, taefed ot ysae os eb di thguoht uoy fi. Derebmuntuo re'uoy won!"

" 'Now you're outnumbered! If you thought I'd be so easy to defeat, you were wrong.' " Carol translated again.

"Y'all, I don't like where this is goin'!" Kai said seriously.

The seven sausages then cornered the ninja against the far wall of the room.

"I say we try Spinjitzu." said Lloyd, "It might work!"

"Good thinking!" replied Carol.

The six ninja did their Spinjitzu. The sausages were staring at the bright colorful mini tornadoes. They got sucked up in them and were thrown across the room. That's when the floor started making a cracking noise.

"Oh, no! I think our Spinjitzu, throwing the sausages, and the storm outside was too much pressure on the floor!" exclaimed Nya, "In other words, we need to get to the top deck now!"

"Let's do this!" Lloyd said. The ninja ran up above decks as the floor was making even more creaking noises.

"What about Zane?!" Carol yelled through all the wind.

"I'll go back!" said Cole.

"Be careful down there!" Lloyd yelled.

Cole replied, "Don't worry! I've got this!"

Cole stepped down the stairway and carefully stepped closer to the nindroid. But, as he was making his way over, he got jumped by a sausage and the extra pressure caused the floors to crack beneath his feet. He pushed off the sausage and sent it hurtling against the far wall, where it bounced off as if nothing happened. It was then the floor shattered. Cole grabbed on the edge of a plank at the last second and saw Zane fall next to him. He grabbed Zane's arm just in time, but he was losing his grip. And he saw the lead sausage standing next to his hand. The sausage smiled wickedly, and bit down hard. With a yelp of pain, Cole lost his grip. He and Zane fell, spiraling downwards through the wind and rain. Cole tried frantically to summon his elemental dragon. But it's not easy to focus when you're hurtling towards your death. _This is the end, isn't it?_ Cole thought hopelessly as the ground grew ever closer.

* * *

The wind whipped the two dragons around like crazy, as if they were only feathers. Rain poured down as if the ocean was falling from the sky, and deadly dark purple lightning flashed every minute. Or precisely forty-eight seconds and two milliseconds, according to Tia.

"Ugh," Tia complained, "I did my hair into the most _sick_ braid this morning, and look what this storm did! It's ruined!"

"We're caught in the middle of a deadly storm, unable to find the Bounty, and you're worrying about your hair?!" Mac asked behind her, aghast. He had woke up a little while ago, and didn't take too well to the acute pain in his back and finding himself in the middle of Caudeth's storm of doom.

"It was exquisite!" argued Tia. She then steered her dragon sharply to the left, avoiding a flash of lightning. "I SO hate lightning!"

Skylor pulled her dragon up next to Tia's. "See anything?" Skylor asked.

"Nothing except for my disastrous hair!" cried Tia.

Skylor took a very deep, slow breath. "All righty, then."

They powered through the storm for a while, Tia describing her braiding techniques the whole way. Then she paused. She felt sure the Bounty was nearby, but why, she didn't know. She looked up, and squinted. Where those two dark shapes falling out of the sky?

Mac noticed her staring, and asked, "What's wrong?"

Tia pointed. "What's falling out of the sky?"

Across on Skylor's dragon, Ivy rolled her eyes. "Uh, the rain?"

"Not that," said Tia, " _THAT_." Everyone looked up, and saw the falling shapes.

"Um," said Skylor, concerned, "that isn't something from the storm, right?"

Then they heard a distant screaming from above. "There's dudes falling from the sky!" exclaimed Tia.

"Well, shouldn't we save them?" asked Ivy.

"Ugh, do we have a choice? Being a ninja is SO tiring!" Tia's dragon shot upward, Skylor's not far behind. As they got closer, they could tell that there were two people falling.

Tia sighed boredly. "I'll get one, you get the other; okay, Sky?"

Skylor nodded. "They're probably just pilots whose plane got wrecked in the storm." Soon they closed in on the figures: Tia swerved right and caught one, and Skylor went left, neatly catching the other. Ivy steadied the person, who looked unconscious.

Tia and Mac turned around to look at the person behind them and gasped.

"Cole?" Mac said, shocked.

Cole sat, stunned, barely fitting on the already overloaded dragon. He flicked his soaked hair out of his eyes and stared at them in surprised confusion.

Tia raised an eyebrow. "Dude, what the heck were you doing falling from the sky?" She looked over at Skylor and Ivy, who were staring at a turned-off Zane.

Cole looked around, disoriented. "You're alive?"

"Why is everyone so idiotic today?" exclaimed Tia. "Obviously! It's not like we're ghosts!" Then she looked Cole up and down. "But you might be someday."

"What?" He now looked even more confused.

"Never mind!" She then turned her attention to Skylor, "I say we land! I don't know how much more energy I have with all these passengers! And I don't see the Bounty anywhere!"

Skylor nodded. They both landed their dragons in a muddy farm field and they disappeared in sparks of orange and purple. Then, the questions came.

"How did you fall from the sky? And, where's everyone else?" Ivy asked her brother.

"The Bounty's floor was falling through, I was trying to get Zane because he had turned off from the sorcery in the air. Everyone else is on the deck of the Bounty. I just hope they're fine." Cole replied.

"Well, your hoping time is over!" Tia cut in, "Let's just use Airjitzu or something and get to the Bounty!"

"It's not that simple! The winds get stronger and stronger the more you go up!"

Tia gave a frustrated groan. "Well, none of use seem to be able to make our dragons right now; the dark magic is starting to affect us too! What are we supposed to do? Wait till the rest of the ninja get here?"

"Yes!" Mac said.

"No! That was a terrible idea!" said the Master of Time, whirling towards him.

"I wasn't talking to you!" Mac said with an eyeroll. "I just came up with my own idea!"

* * *

 **Whew! That took a while to edit! And yes, Ivy is Cole's sister. We didn't know that fact when we did that first chapter with her, so when our friend informed us of that, it was all like "Opps…" And to think I wrote that part when Cole said they should leave Ivy behind…double opps. :D**

 **Please feel free to leave a review and have a fantastic week! ;)**


	9. Bringin' Out the Flashlights

Chapter 9: Bringin' Out the Flashlights

 **Easter is tomorrow already, guys! It seemed to take forever to get here, but now that is almost is, it feels like it just jumped out at me! Like a rabbit! Anyways, moving on from my terribly cheesy comparisons, I'm sad and pumped to announce that there are an estimated three or four chapters left in this short story. It was just a first, so it is kinda short, but after this Kendra and I have plans for another story. Bigger plans. Plans that involve me sayin' this here very sentence with a southern accent….XD**

 **GLACIER3: I went through all my author's notes in this story so far and counted up 23 XD so far. If I included the one in this chapter's A/N and the one I know is going to show up at the end of this reply, it'll be 25 total. XD So many!**

 **Anonymous7: Aw, thank you! And telling crazy backstories of stories is actually really fun. ;)**

* * *

The Bounty was being tossed around the sky like some crazy floaty toy in the ocean. Being caught in the middle of the huge magical hurricane, the ninja had no choice but to hold on to the rail of the ship for dear life and hope it'll pass soon while the rain poured down as if the ocean itself was falling from the sky. They were still waiting for Zane to be brought back to the top-deck by Cole, who was sure taking his sweet time. An excessively strong gust of wind rocked the ship, making the five ninja either gasp, stumble, or turn a sickly shade of green.

"Y'all, I think I'm gonna be sick!" Kai yelled, clutching the railing tightly.

"Never mind that!" Lloyd replied, though he scooted himself a few extra feet away from Kai. "Cole's been gone for a while now; does someone want to go see how he's doing?"

"If he is still there," Carol said worriedly, looking back at the door leading below decks.

"Why does no one listen to me?" Jay asked, exasperated. He slammed a hand down on the railing. " _Positive_ thinking!"

"Well, obviously since no one offered to go, I'll go myself!" Lloyd said, annoyed. He crawled to the door on the floorboards of the deck, knowing there'd be less of a chance of being knocked over than if he walked. He opened the door and it flew open with a _BA-BANG-BANG-BANG_! as the door crashed against the wall a few times in the wind. Lloyd went down the stairs a couple steps to look around. He scanned the room in surprise as he took in the gaping hole in the floor. Air pulled against him towards it. Then he saw the sausages huddled in ring around the remaining flooring surrounding the edge of the hole.

He quickly pulled himself out of the room and back on the main deck to the others. "Guys, the sausages are still there, but Cole and Zane aren't!" he announced to them in a rush.

"Oh darn it! What else could go wrong?" Nya asked with exasperation.

She spoke too soon. Gargling and hissing came from behind them. The five slowly turned around to find themselves face-to-face with the seven sausages making their way up the stairs.

"Shut the door, y'all!" Kai yelled at Lloyd, waving his arms in panic.

Lloyd slammed it closed just in time. A thud and a whimper could be heard as it hit the leading sausage.

"Now what, y'all?" Kai yelled through the wind. "That door ain't gonna hold up forever!"

The door was already beginning to splinter as the sausages inside threw themselves against it to break it down.

"Come on, guys, between the five of us, we have to think of something!" Carol reasoned, her brown curls tangling in the wind.

"Please tell me we didn't leave all our weapons in the bridge," Jay said slowly.

Lloyd looked around at the group. "Well…"

"Oh come on!" Jay threw his hands in the air. "You guys are making it _really_ hard to stay positive!"

"I'll BURN them, y'all!" Kai exclaimed. "RRROOOOOAAAAAST THEM!" Kai lit a fire in one hand, but the rain quickly put it out.

"You can't!" objected Carol. "It's too wet for fire and besides, with this crazy weather you could easily damage the ship!"

"And our powers can't harm the sausages!" added Nya.

"Well, not directly…" Jay trailed off.

"Not directly...that's it! We just need to find a way for our powers to push them off this ship!" Lloyd said with new excitement.

"Um, we're doin' what now?" Kai looked very confused.

Nya's face lit up in understanding. "I get it!" She looked around the deck. "Some empty crates, plenty of rain... I have an idea! Everyone, stand back! Lloyd, open the door on my signal!"

"Open the door? Nya, what are you going to do?" asked Carol uncertainly.

Nya smiled mischievously. "Just watch." She closed her eyes, focusing. The rain hitting the deck stopped running off, but gathered together in a large orb on the deck. It got bigger and bigger, till Nya opened her eyes again. "Now!"

Lloyd opened the door wide, and Nya blast the water towards it, picking up the wooden crates on the deck on the way. The sausages smiled evilly, ready to feast, but they all stopped, surprised when they saw the water and crates racing towards them. The water, though coming fast, did nothing to them, but the crates smashed into them, pulling the sausages into the wave and towards the hole in the floor.

"Yes!" the other ninja cheered when the sausages began to go down the hole in a whirlpool like water down a drain.

"Just a little housekeeping!" Nya said, straining, but still smiling at her progress. When all the water and crates fell through, though, some sausages still remained. Then Jay stepped forward and shot a bolt of lightning at the room's lights, causing them to spark and fall. They landed on the last sausages, electrocuting them, and the floor broke apart where they lay, and they tumbled out into the atmosphere.

"We did it!" Nya cheered. She ran over to Jay as he pulled her into a hug, and she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

Kai's face grew bright red in anger, and he marched over and pulled Jay away from his sister. "I said NO. FUNNY. BUSINESS, Y'ALL!" he roared in Jay's face.

Nya pulled Kai off him, face red with frustration. "Bro, one day you just need to accept this!"

Kai scowled. "And let you be with that buffoon?! Never!"

Carol quickly stepped in. "So, you're sure those monsters are dead?" she said.

Nya nodded. "They had tough skin, but even they can't survive that fall." She paused, and then her eyes welled with tears. "Neither could've Cole and Zane."

Jay put a comforting arm around her shoulders, but before Kai could loudly object, the ship jumped and creaked. A harsh _POW_! sounded from the back of the ship.

"The engines!" cried Nya. "They must've blown!"

"Let's get to the control room! Maybe we can keep the ship from crashing!" said Lloyd, already running towards its direction. The other four took off, following him. They all burst into the room and dashed to the controls, and Nya grabbed the wheel, desperate to pull the ship out of its nosedive. Jay ran to help her, Kai too greenish looking to notice. Everyone frantically tried the controls, pulling at the wheel, and Lloyd even tried making an energy slide for the ship, which only made the descent more steep.

"It's no use!" said Carol in a fright. "We have to do something else!"

"It's too late to abandon ship," said Nya, trying to stay calm but failing, voice wavering. "All we can do is prepare for a crash landing!" Everyone huddled together, and Lloyd made an energy shield around them. The ship spiraled downward, ever approaching landing. Then it hit ground with a crash, and all went black.

* * *

Back in the soggy rice field of the abandoned farm, Mac and the other four ninja huddled together in the pouring rain. The unconscious Zane was leaned up against a nearby tree creeping out of the forest, and the others had tried their best to take cover under a small pine.

Looking over each of his fellow ninja in a dramatic manner, Mac said, "Okay, so the pl-" but he was roughly cut off when a large flying ship came crashing down, literally. "We go over there!" He improvised pointing at the crashed ship.

"What the-" Tia stammered. "Things need to stop falling out of the sky! It's getting old!"

"No wait…" said Skylor slowly, squinting at the ruined ship. Then her violet-gray eyes widened with horror. "It's the Bounty!"

The five ninja ran over to the ship in a sprint. Ivy almost tripped over Jay, who was sprawled out half-buried in a pile of the Bounty's boards. Looking around, Ivy saw the rest of the five lying haphazardly in the wreckage.

"Over here!" Ivy called to the others. "They need help!" She bent down to pick up a piece of wood burying Jay, but then froze, hand shooting to her side as she clenched her teeth in pain.

"I think you need some too!" Cole replied, rushing over. He tore a length of fabric from the corner of his shirt and tied it around her wound in a hasty bandage. "That should stop the bleeding for now, or until we can get back."

"Thanks." She gave him a weak smile. She was about to bend over again when Tia stopped her, grabbing her wrist.

"Two things," she said in a business-like manner. "First, leave Jay there for _last._ Some extra rain won't hurt him." She smiled wickedly, and then softened. "Second, how about you wait over by Zane? We'll take care of the others."

Ivy looked reluctant, but sighed. "All right then. But next time I'm not sitting out of whatever happens next, and you guys can't stop me," she said as she turned back to the pine.

"Okay, now that that's done!" Tia interrupted, her usual sassiness coming back, "Let's get back to the others!" It was a slow process, but eventually Mac, Cole, Skylor, and Tia had pulled out the five from the Bounty's wreckage. Much to their relief, the five seemed uninjured besides a few scrapes and sprains.

"What just happened?" Carol asked as she started to stir, holding a hand to her head.

"The Bounty crashed." Tia said simply, helping Carol sit up.

"You're all okay?"

"Yeah, and after everyone comes round we have to get out of this rain." Then Tia pulled a few stray strands of copper hair out of her eyes. "And I have to redo my braid!"

"You wouldn't happen to know if Cole and Zane..." Carol trailed off with that thought in mind.

"They're fine! We caught them on our dragons!" Tia replied reassuringly.

Carol gave a sigh of relief, she then looked around wide-eyed, seeing the mess the Bounty was in. "How do we get out of the rain when the Bounty is like this?"

"We walk!" Tia pointed over to the two pines where Ivy and the unconscious Zane waited.

Then nearby Kai sat up in a sudden panic, hands feeling the air above his messy hair. "Y'all, where's my hat?"

Tia face palmed.

"What, y'all?"

"Dude, we've been through all this, and you're wondering where your hat is?" Tia asked.

Carol raised an eyebrow, thinking of all the times Tia ranted about her hair at the worst of times, but decided not to say anything.

"Ya have a point!" Kai paused, and then he added, "I betta find my sis. I need to make sure she and Jay ain't doin' no funny business!"

* * *

After they had salvaged what they could from the wreckage, the ninja took shelter under the pine trees. They crowded together in a circle around a blue fire Mac had made. When it came to small, controllable fires, everyone picked Mac over Kai. Mac's flames wouldn't burn skin from direct contact at least.

Carol went around with the first aid kit they found, tending to everyone's injuries. Soon she had to use tree leaves and ripped blankets for bandages. Nya and Jay were fiddling with Zane, trying to turn him back on, while Kai watched them suspiciously.

Skylor stared down at her can of soup, appetite gone. "So, what are we going to do now?" she asked quietly.

"We have to get to the city!" Lloyd said, rubbing a bandaged arm. "Ivy said Caudeth planned to attack at dusk, and we need to be there to defend the people! The police can only do so much."

"But we have no idea where we are, exactly," said Cole. "And we're in no shape to fight."

"Perhaps my number 6750GB compass and locater can be of assistance." Everyone whirled around to look at Zane, who Nya and Jay had successfully turned on. They exchanged a high five, which Kai didn't look so happy about.

"Yes! Zane's back on!" cheered Mac, and the others joined in, a few even giving Zane a bro-hug.

"Did I miss much?" Zane asked slowly, blinking at their surroundings with a quizzical expression.

Lloyd proceeded to tell him a rushed version of the story while the others continued talking about the current situation.

"We programmed him to the recirculating mode to filter out the dark magic," explained Jay proudly.

"A walking, talking map," exclaimed Ivy, "is just what we need!"

Tia perked up, looking solemn. She had been pacing back and forth a little distance from the others, wearing a grove into the ground. "We have to get there fast," she said, adjusting the bandage on her forehead. "Caudeth's right on the edge of New Ninjago City, causing havoc. And his army was literally _multiplying_."

"We are precisely eight miles away from the city," said Zane, eyes glowing. "We need to head southwest, that way." He pointed in the indicated direction.

"We'll be too late, y'all!" Kai exclaimed. "It'll take too long by foot, and most of us can't conjure up y'all's dragons!"

Wolf howling in the distance caused everyone to jump, but Carol just smiled. "I think I know some friends of mine who can help."

* * *

"I ain't ridin' a wolf!" Kai complained.

"Relax! I got this!" Carol said. The wolves came closer to the ninja's camp, mouths drooling. But, there was something fishy about them. Carol tried to message them telepathically something along the lines of _Come help us_ but, the wolves growled at her fiercely instead. When she tried to talk to them in their minds she hit an impassable barrier that greatly unnerved her.

"You're sure they're friends?" Lloyd asked.

"Well-" Carol began with hesitation. Then she noticed that the wolves had a little purple glint in their eyes. _Ugh! What does Caudeth not have under his control?_ She thought. "Apparently they're under _his_ control." She said, looking at the wolf pack with a twinge of fear. She never was unable to communicate with animals before.

"Who's _he_? Oh, wait! Never mind!" Jay said quickly.

"How did you not know, Garbage?" Tia asked, hand covering her eyes in exasperation.

"I figured it out!" He replied angrily.

"Guys, let's stop before this gets worse!" Skylor said while getting in between them. "We don't need this! Can you two just get along until we're done with this battle?"

Just then, a wolf jumped towards Carol. She let out a shriek and dodged out of its way just in time. It flew past her into the tree behind with a whimper. But before anyone could blink, the wolf was back on its feet, joining the other wolves in circling them. Kai made a flame in his hand, but before he threw it at a wolf, Carol grabbed his wrist saying, "He's innocent! He's just being controlled!" Her eyes were wide with worry for the wolf. Kai extinguished his flame in fury, rolling his eyes.

"I sense the best way to defeat them without inflicting harm is to let them tire out themselves, like Garmadon taught us," Zane explained.

"But we need them to help us get to New Ninjago City before Caudeth!" Carol exclaimed.

"I think we should just do what Zane said and travel as fast as we can by foot." said Cole seriously. "Since we don't know how to stop this Caudeth guy, I doubt we know how to reverse his spell."

"Positive thinking!" Jay said as he curled his hand into a fist, hitting his other hand in a threatening gesture.

"Oh, how could I forget to say?" Ivy said to herself in a barely audible murmur.

"What, y'all?" Kai questioned.

"I found Caudeth's weakness!"

"YOU WHAT?!" Tia exclaimed, swinging a large stick like a club threateningly at a wolf that had become uncomfortably close. "YOU KNEW HIS WEAKNESS AND DIDN'T THINK TO TELL US TILL NOW?!"

"I'm sorry!" said Ivy roughly back, glaring at a nearby wolf. "I was a bit _distracted_ for the past few hours!"

"Just hurry up and tell us!" Lloyd yelled. He strained as he formed a thin energy barrier, separating the ninja from the circling wolves to keep the pack from immediately pouncing.

"Very, very bright light! Both natural and artificial!" Ivy turned invisible for a second, but quickly reappeared when the effort became too much.

"That's it, y'all?" Kai yelled. He then commanded another flame to his hands, letting it grow and build till it was a blinding light. And then with a shove, he directed the fire's light right into the wolves' hungry eyes.

* * *

 **Now that Flashlight song is going through my head, whatever it's from. :D Hope you enjoyed that sorta-cliffhanger there! Review and have an amazing Easter! :)**


	10. TO BATTLE!

Chapter 10: TO BATTLE!

 **There are many things in this world I don't understand. One is grape-flavored apples. Another is how during track practice the weather is beautiful and sunny, and then when the meet comes, the ocean begins falling from the sky. Yep, it's been a strange week. XD But here we are at the end of it with chapter ten! It's crazy to think I've been posting this thang since February! Oh, and happy Earth Day everyone! And apparently happy National Day of Puppetry. Sometimes I question how peeps came up with these holidays.**

 **Anonymous7: Big cliffhangers can be the worst in TV shows if the next episode isn't out yet! Or at the end of books! *shudders thinking of past experiences with cliffhangers* XD And aw, thank you! My Easter was great! ;)**

 **Fires of Darkness: Yep, one of Kai's favorite pastimes: rooooaaaasting. XP And that dessert sounds so good! You actually make something fancy for Easter while I stuff my face with candy and later regret my life choices. XD And don't worry, there's still a few chapters coming! And we already have half of our next story written, so that'll be up real soon after this one…:)**

* * *

The sudden light filled the dark fields, casting eerie shadows on the twin pines above them. The wolves yelped in unison surprise, and drew a couple feet back, whimpering.

"Y'all better back up, ya pups!" Kai shouted, waving his fire through the air vigorously.

Once again, Tia face palmed.

The wolves seemed to shake themselves out of the shock, and, seeming to squint now, began to growl. They drew closer to the ninja as Lloyd's barrier began to falter, flickering.

"I won't be able to hold it much longer!" Lloyd warned, straining to keep the energy shield up.

"We need more light!" said Ivy hurriedly. She fumbled around for a flashlight salvaged from the Bounty.

"Well, let's make some!" Mac interjected, a fistful of blue flames in one hand.

Jay followed suit, lightning crackling between both hands. Skylor cupped her hands and created a ball of bright light while Tia's gold and purple swirls filled the air. Then Zane, arms outstretched, created large smooth walls of ice vertical from the ground, mathematically placed to help reflect more light at the wolves. Lloyd put all he had into his energy shield; Ivy, Nya, and Carol grabbed lanterns, flashlights and, in Nya's case, a cellphone light, and aimed the beams of light at the pack. The dark foggy camp was instantly filled with blinding light.

With howls of pain and rage, the wolves ran, tails between their legs. They disappeared back into the thick trees, and soon their crashing through the underbrush faded and was gone.

"Ha-ha! We scared them off!" cheered Lloyd, wiping the sweat from his brow.

Carol sighed sadly. "Those poor wolves..." Mac put a hand on her shoulder, and Lloyd went from celebrating to downright Spock-ish.

"Who knew all it took was a little light!" exclaimed Jay. "And positive thinking!"

"Ugh! I can't take this anymore!" Tia grabbed Jay by the collar and yelled in his face, "I AM SO SICK, AND TIRED, OF YOUR CONSTANT POSITIVITY!"

Jay pulled himself free with a scowl. "It's not my fault you're such a pessimist all the time!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, we're breaking this up now," Skylor said sternly, stepping between the two. Then she rubbed a hand over her face. "Being a mediator between these two is giving me a headache," she muttered to herself.

"We have to go to the city now!" announced Cole. "We wasted enough time as it is!"

"MEH!" groaned Tia, dragging her feet and giving Jay a final glare. "I guess we better start walking."

"Wait, do you guys hear that?" asked Nya, tilting her head. Everyone stopped and listened. They heard the unmistakable sound of an approaching helicopter.

"I sense it's with the police," observed Zane. Everyone let out a relieved breath.

"But who, y'all?" asked Kai, still looking suspicious.

The Master of Ice just shrugged. "It's too hard to determine at this uncalculated distance."

After a minute, the large helicopter flew above them, spotlight pointed down. The light come to a stop finding them, and the ninja squinted in the bright light. The helicopter hovered above them, and began to lower itself down in a hover. The pine trees and tall grass whipped crazily in the copter's winds.

"Um, you're sure they're friendly, Zane?" Carol asked uncertainly. "Because if not, we need to run for it _now_."

Zane opened his mouth to answer, but a loud voice from the helicopter above cut him off.

"THERE YOU ARE, MY SAUSAGES!" Sensei Wu's voice rang from the megaphone.

"Sensei...?" Skylor murmured, puzzled.

Then another familiar voice came from the megaphone. "Hold on, down there! We'll send down a rope and pull you up!"

"It's the stick figure guy!" said Cole, still teasing Lloyd for his lacking art skills. Lloyd rolled his eyes.

A long, thick rope unraveled from the helicopter, the end just barely touching the ground.

"Yes! This is the way to travel!" cheered Tia, grabbing the rope instantly and already pulling herself up.

Soon the ninja were all pulled aboard the helicopter, and luckily it had a seating capacity of fifteen passengers. Then it went out of hover and began to head towards the city.

Sensei Wu looked over the eleven ninja skeptically. "What were you doing in the middle of the forest, my little sausages?" he said through the headsets they all put on. "And do I even want to ask what happened to the Bounty?"

Immediately they began to tell the whole story, each one butting in to tell what they considered to be the most important part. It went on like this for several minutes, ending when Tia and Jay started a heated argument over the best toaster model. Skylor stepped in with a groan, trying to mediate between them, while the others continued with their conversation.

Wu stroked his beard, thinking. "How did you find this out, Ivy?" he asked her, referring to Caudeth's weakness.

"I noticed that he always stayed far away from the campfires, and if he looked at them, he always flinched," Ivy explained. "And now that we tested it out on the wolves we know for sure it's one of his weaknesses."

He nodded thoughtfully. "Using that much dark magic tends to create a great sensitivity to bright light."

Then Joe turned around in the copilot seat. "We'll reach New Ninjago City in about three minutes!" he shouted in the headsets over the noise of whirling propellers and toaster arguments.

"What exactly is the plan, y'all?" shouted Kai.

Sensei Wu dramatically looked off into the distance once more. "We must turn every light in Ninjago to Caudeth, and while he's weak, destroy him once and for all."

* * *

Caudeth was marching his sausage army toward New Ninjago City. The rain continued to pour down, making them hard to distinguish from the city in the poor vision. When they reached the entry way into the city on a mostly abandoned road, he raised his hand commanding his sausages to stop.

In the entryway to the city, a crowd had gathered. In front was a wall of police with bulletproof shields, looking very unsure of what to think about the sausage army. Reporters tried to get shots of the army around them, and citizens leaned out the windows of apartment buildings above; everyone was trying to get a view of the unbelievable threat.

"People of Ninjago," Caudeth was saying loudly to the city, but there was no reply. Snapping his fingers, he motioned to a nearby sausage soldier. The sausage quickly handed Caudeth a megaphone."People of Ninjago!" Caudeth tried again, yelling into the megaphone. Now more people came out of buildings to see who this was with all the sausages, and the reporters stopped talking and aimed their cameras at Caudeth.

"You might have wondered where all your sausages have gone," Caudeth continued, scanning the city with narrowed eyes. "Well, I took them, and made this army. As you know, the fourth of Nuly is to celebrate the success of the Ninjago sausage team in 1879 against the Tiger Widow Pork. If it's to celebrate freedom, why eat them? We are here to declare this freedom again! It may be the sixth of Nuly, but this how it feels when we finally fight back! So, surrender, or perish to the sausages!" He did that wicked smile of his. The citizens of Ninjago murmured amongst themselves, completely confused as on what to do.

"Since you didn't surrender, I have no choice." Caudeth turned to his sausage army. "ATTACK!"

The hundreds of sausages let out howls of delight, and charged forwards into the city. At first the people stood still, but as the sausages drew closer and they realized that objects further away are even larger up close, they dispersed in a chaotic wave, screaming and yelling in panic. The sausages pressed on, chasing the people in a hungry frenzy. Caudeth followed behind them, orbs of dark magic in each hand. He shots beams of dark energy at buildings, cutting large gashes into their walls and sending the citizens screaming. He let out an insane laugh.

Suddenly, a helicopter could just be heard over the chaos. Caudeth looked up, seeing it lowering into the middle of the city. He smiled wickedly. _Too easy_.

He took aim at the helicopter and tried to shoot it down with dark magic. Unfortunately for him, he already used it all up on the buildings. He let out a frustrated curse.

When the helicopter neared the ground, eleven figures jumped out and neatly landed on their feet. _The ninja_.

The people close enough to see them let out cheers of relief.

Mac and Kai made a bright wall of fire in the main road, blocking many of the sausages from nearing the citizens.

"FYYYYYAARRRREE! Here we go!" sang Kai.

"EVERYONE!" Wu said through his megaphone up on the helicopter. "WE NEED YOU TO TURN ALL YOUR LIGHTS ON AND TRY TO SHINE THEM ON THE SAUSAGES AND CAUDETH!"

Even though the citizens were confused by these instructions, the ones not in mortal peril rushed to do it anyways while the eleven ninja easily picked off the few sausages chasing after the citizens.

People rushed into their houses, turning on all the lights and grabbing every flashlight and lantern they had. Business owners turned on all their lit-up signs and all their neon lights, and some citizens even began lugging out the Christmas lights. Spotlights, beacons, headlights, every source of light imaginable was turned on, lighting up the entire city. And with the two brothers' fire and the sheets of ice Zane and Nya made to reflect it, the city became twice as bright!

Caudeth yelped in pain, shielding his eyes, while the sausages backed away in complete confusion. They couldn't multiply themselves in bright light.

"The power lines!" ordered Caudeth, "cut them down!" Immediately a group of ten ax-wielding sausages ran to the power line and began hacking it down like a tree.

Carol saw this from far away, on top of a building where she stood guard. She quickly whistled a tune in the air. The sound of hundreds flapping wings filled the air, and birds swarmed down at the lumberjack sausages. They scratched at them with their talons, and the sausages dropped their axes and ran around, frantically slapping at the attacking birds.

Caudeth roared in anger. "Whimps!" With renewed energy from his rage, he shot a blast of dark magic at the power line, and it instantly fell, snapping the cables. The buildings plunged into darkness, only the flashlights, fire, and headlights remaining. And it wasn't bright enough to stop Caudeth.

He burst into an evil laugh, and yelled, "Charge!" The sausages ran forwards into the heart of the city. People screamed and ran back into buildings, trying to dodge the hungry sausages.

"Protect the citizens!" Lloyd shouted to the other ninja, pulling out two katanas.

Carol regrouped her birds, and ran into the fray, blade swinging and birds at her back. Kai and Mac put walls of fire in front of the buildings and began fighting off sausages back-to-back with their swords. Nya and Cole used their elements to crush sausages with heavy objects. Zane trapped sausages in boxes of ice, while throwing his shurkins with deadly accuracy. Skylor flew above on her dragon, shooting arrows at the monsters below. Ivy weaved through the sausages invisibly, cutting them down faster than the eye can see. Sensei Wu flew in the helicopter with Joe, shooting light out of his staff like Gandalf.

"Hey, Garbage-Stalker!" called Tia, fending off three sausages at once. "Make yourself useful and turn the power back on!"

"Why would I take orders from you?!" Jay shouted back, but took off to the power lines' control panel anyways.

The battle raged on. Though the ninja fought hard, the sausages just kept coming. For every one they took down, five more seemed to take its place. The eleven's energy was running out fast, and the sausages seemed to be getting stronger and faster. Caudeth shot his dark magic at them, doubling the attack.

"You should surrender while you have the chance!" he said, sending a blast towards Kai and Mac.

"Never, y'all!" Kai yelled, rolling to one side to avoid the shot.

"Fools, all of you," Caudeth said boredly. "I guess I'll just have to kill you off now. Sausages, finish them off!" With a wave of his hand, more sausages swarmed into the square, squealing in delight like little pigs.

The ninja watched helplessly at the sausages overtook them and the city.

* * *

 **And so I rant about how painful cliffhangers are, then make a big cliffhanger myself. I can be quite the hypocrite at times, I'm afraid. XD And so the battle begins! Please leave a review; we love feedback! Especially the positive kind! :D Enjoy your week, everyone!**


	11. Hashtag Cray-Cray

Chapter 11: Hashtag Cray-Cray

 **Supreme apologies for the late post, y'all! Yesterday I had an all-day track meet and didn't have any time to edit this next chapter. Speaking of the track meet, they managed to put me in the heats with all the fast peeps. Yet, I'm not a fast person. You can imagine how that looked. *shudders* XD Well, this chapter was delayed enough! To work!**

 **Fires of Darkness: That's one crazy week! I always have so many projects teachers throw on me. The first one that comes to mind is this presentation I had to do on the Lummi Indian tribe. Part of it was to make an Indian dish. So ya know, I stayed up real late after track practice to make this Lummi Frybread (it turned out a lot better than I thought it would). The next day I passed it out to the class, this dish that I put my blood sweat and tears into making. And ya know what my classmates bring for their dishes? Strawberries! They either brought strawberries or blueberries! I cooked something, and they just bring fruit! And I'm just thinking, "What is this?!" Anyways, there I go again, ranting. XD Oo, and a long time ago when Kendra and I made stop-motions we had a Lego Harry Potter. Except I lost the face. So we changed the name to Henry Porter. Random fact. XD**

 **Jens: Well, I'm a-glad this here story cheered y'all up! ;) Kendra came up with the Tiger Widow Pork part. And yep, the sausages sure don't like being eaten! Though now they just trying to eat people instead…what hypocrites! :'D**

 **GLACIER3: Oh no, you're good! Any review at any time makes both Kendra and I so happy! :) And yas, Kai's accent really is memorable, isn't it? XD (And I think there's now about 32 XDs so far? Idk, I give up! :'D)**

* * *

The ten ninjas huddled together as the sausages pressed them into the corner of the city's plaza. The sausages licked their razor-sharp teeth, grinning manically. The ninja looked at each other with panic, hoping for some kind of idea or way out.

"How about Spinjitzu again?" Lloyd asked as the ninja were being even more scrunched together in the corner, deflecting the sausages' attacks with their blades.

"Yeah, cause apparently that worked _so well_ for you guys last time!" Tia shot back, katana pressed against a sausage's spear staff in a deadly embrace.

"But this time we're not on a ship in half-repair," Carol pointed out after pushing another sausage away with a well-placed kick. "So why not?"

"Then here goes nothing," Cole said.

The ninja started spinning in whirling tornadoes, but Caudeth was faster. As they just began coming toward the army, he shot a blast of dark magic in their direction. With a _whoosh_! and flash of deep violet, the ten's Spinjitzu was abruptly stopped as they were thrown back against an apartment building.

Caudeth stepped towards the fallen ninja. With a smooth flick of his wrist, thick cords of pure dark energy wrapped around them neater than a Christmas present. They struggled feebly to get out of their bindings, but the more they struggled, the tighter it got.

"Oh, marvelous!" Tia yelled sarcastically. "Look where your plan got us this time, Lloyd!"

"What? Why are you always blaming me for everything!" Lloyd retorted, straining against the ropes.

"It was your idea!"

"Guys, cut it out, please!" Nya said with exasperation, grunting as she fought to move her bound arms.

"Cut it out…of course!" Skylor began to say to herself. "If I can just reach it…"

"What?" Mac said, not able to be any more confused.

Suddenly a helicopter flew overhead, and a loud voice rang out.

"Sausages," Sensei Wu yelled into a megaphone above them, "the ropes get tighter the more you struggle. You need to relax!"

"Let's try this." Lloyd said. The ten tried to relax some more, though it proved that's really hard to do when you're being strangled by raw evil magic mush. The ropes got a little looser, but didn't get them any further than when Caudeth first put them on.

"Pathetic." Caudeth said, having watched all the drama play out with an entertained smile. He walked to the closest ninja which happened to be Tia. She glared at the ground, refusing to look at him, but he just grabbed her roughly by the chin and forced her gaze upwards.

"Ah, if it's not the little oracle," he said mockingly. "I'm sure you know more than you'd admit. So tell me, where is the Realm Crystal?"

"Like I would ever tell you that!" Tia hissing, spitting on the ground.

"I can... set you free from this rope." he said, grinning.

"That's _all_? Dude, I'd stay in this rope any day rather than tell you where the realm crystal is!"

"Then perhaps," Caudeth said slyly, walking slowly backwards, "you require a different form of persuasion." With lightning fast movement, he grabbed Carol by the arm and held a wicked knife to her throat. "I already stabbed that dark haired brat-" Ivy glared furiously at Caudeth "-so I don't think this will be any more challenging."

Tia opened her mouth to speak, and when no sound came out, closed it, and tried again. "I…I can't…"

"Wait!" Skylor cut in. Everyone turned to look at her after her sudden outburst. "She doesn't even know where it is!" Skylor continued, talking fast, mind racing. "I can show you though."

Tia looked at Skylor with furious horror. Before she could start yelling, Skylor telepathically told Tia, _Trust me, I got this_. Tia didn't look fully convinced, but at least she didn't openly object. Though, that didn't stop the others.

"You out of your mind?!"

"I don't believe that is a logical course to take, strategically speaking."

"This is cray-cray! Hashtag cray-cray!"

"We can't just _give_ the enemy what he wants!"

"Don't do it, y'all!"

"Your offering to show me where it is?" Caudeth asked, eyeing Skylor suspiciously, eyebrow raised.

Skylor nodded grimly. Except for Tia, the other eight continued to object.

"Sky, you can't be serious!" Ivy said in a panic.

Ignoring them, Caudeth asked, "Where can I find it?"

"Untie me and I'll say!" Skylor shot back.

"I'm not that stupid, element vacuum girl. You must tell me first."

"The top of the roof of Borg Industries." She said it so confidently, but she was lying of course. The other ninja realized this, and silence fell over them.

Caudeth waved a hand, eyes not leaving Skylor. A sausage came forward, saluting. "Go and see if she is telling the truth," Caudeth ordered. "I won't be too far behind." The sausage saluted once more, and took off with several others in tow.

"Now," Caudeth said, looking over at the ninja but talking to the sausages, "guard them till I come back. If one of them so much as twitches, feel free to devour them whole." He turned away from them, voice even more cold, if that was possible. "And keep an eye out for that blue one. He seems to be missing." With a whirl of his cape, Caudeth rushed off into the shadows of the doomed city.

Once he disappeared out of sight, the squadron of sausages soldiers guarding them hissed in warning. Then they sat down where they stood without concern and began to talk amongst themselves in their garbled language.

"What were you thinking?" Cole whispered to Skylor once figuring the sausages wouldn't hear. "When he finds out you lied who knows what will happen to you! And the rest of us for that matter!"

"Well, we're going to stop him before he finds out!" Skylor replied confidently.

"Um, yeah." Mac looked down at the ropes tying them. "I think we're a little _stuck_ right now, though."

Skylor gave him a sly smile. With a small grunt of effort, she poked a black-bladed knife out from between her ropes and began to saw away.

"You know that won't work!" Cole said.

But, it did. The rope snapped and fell to the ground. Skylor gave Cole the I-told-you-so look.

"But-"

"I stole it from Clouse a few years ago. It can get though magical objects."

Then the sausages guarding them, realizing that one of them was standing free with a dagger in hand, attacked them with a roar of fury. With with a fluid motion, Skylor tossed the blade towards Zane. He caught it by the handle with inhuman speed, and sawed off his bindings with one swipe. Then he raised his free hand and froze the water at the sausages feet, sticking them in place.

"Nice one, Zane!" cheered Lloyd.

While Zane set about cutting the rest of them free, Skylor squinted into the distance. Coming their way were more reinforcements.

"Hurry!" she shouted, turning back to the others. "We have to get out of this dead end now!"

As a sausage neared them, Mac surrounded it completely with his fire. It let out an ear-piercing screech that soon faded away till it was nothing.

Carol looked at him in confusion. "I thought our powers couldn't affect it directly."

"Me neither," said Mac, equally confused. Closing his hand, he quickly extinguished the fire. And where a live sausage soldier had stood before, now lay an ordinary, normal sized, grocery store sausage. "How…"

They looked at each other and said in unison, "The light!"

"Hey!" Mac called to the rest of the ninja, "I think I found out how we can defeat Caudeth's army!"

* * *

"We have to get to the roof of Borg industries and corner Caudeth there!" Mac instructed as the ninja ran towards the building. "You know the rest!"

"Can't we just fly up there with our dragons?" asked Ivy, wincing from the pain in her side.

"It would be best to approach our enemy from below, since it would be much less plausible that he would escape," explained Zane. "But perhaps we can find another method of transportation if the pain from your injury persists-"

"I'm fine!" Ivy exclaimed, glaring at Cole when he offered her his arm. "Let's just make this quick!"

"And why are we trusting Mac, may I ask?" Lloyd said, Spock-glare burning into Mac's back.

"Because he has a really good plan!" stated Carol. Lloyd looked completely mortified. He tried to give a retort, but all that came out was a choked sound.

"Uh, so where's Jay exactly?" Skylor brought up, looking around worriedly.

"Oh, that piece of garbage?" Tia said, unconcerned. "I told him to get the power running again. Apparently he failed at it, just like he fails at everything else in life!"

Nya opened her mouth, face reddening, but Skylor gave her a small shake of the head, warning her not to start another fight. "Tia, just go find him and come back here to Borg industries, okay?" Skylor said.

Tia's eyes narrowed. "There is NO way that I'm fetching that disgusting, despicable excuse for a-" she stopped when she saw the look Skylor was giving her. "Fine, FINE!" Tia said, turning around, throwing her hands into the air. "If you want me to get that vulgar piece of filth that pollutes what would otherwise be a decent universe, then it's all on you!" Then she disappeared into a series of alleyways.

"There's a pretty good chance that neither of them will come back alive, you know," Cole said to Skylor. "And I'm not talking about the sausage threat."

Skylor rolled her eyes. "They need to learn not to constantly try to kill each other sometime!" And she ran on ahead.

After a few more minutes, the rest of the ninja reached Borg Industries. They dashed inside, and stopped dead.

All of the computers had been turned over and crushed, along with almost every other piece of furniture in the room. Purple smoke wafted from the damage, an obvious blinking sign pointing to Caudeth. Some workers peeked out from their hiding places under the desks, looking relieved when they saw the ninja.

"Are you all okay?" asked Carol. A few small nods.

"We gotta get up there, y'all!" Kai said. They raced towards the elevator, just to remember that power was out. "Dang it!" yelled Kai, kicking the elevator.

"I believe this is not the elevator's fault," said Zane coolly. "No physical violence will do this situation any good." Kai stopped kicking.

"We'll just have to take the stairs!" announced Lloyd. He opened the door to the stairwell, and everyone groaned. Hundreds upon hundreds of stairs spiraled above them.

* * *

"Come on, come on, come on, come on, comeoncomeoncomeoncomeon!"

Jay was trying to turn the power back on without much success. First he shot a lightning bolt at the electricity box, then he was just randomly turning knobs and flipping switches. He shot more lighting at it.

"Ugh!" he groaned again. "Why isn't this working? Caudeth couldn't have destroyed the whole power system!"

He tried again, aiming more bolts of lightning at the box, putting more wires together, all to no avail. He turned around with his back to the wall, panting. He slowly slid down and sat on the ground, head in hands. _What am I supposed to do now…_

"Hey, Jay Garbage-Stalker!"

He whipped his head up to find Tia walking towards him. "What…what are you doing here?" he said with growing annoyance.

"Filming you fail!" she said happily as she held up her phone. "I normally don't use social media that much, but this is just too good! Say hello to my Instagram followers!"

Jay gritted his teeth as he shot another lightning bolt at the phone, but Tia jumped to the side at the last second and the bolt went whizzing past.

"Sensei isn't here to say it so I'll say it," Tia said sassily. "FAIL!"

Jay leaned his head back against the wall. "I guess you got that right," he said quietly.

Tia blinked, blinked again, looked at the power box, then blinked again. She said with her usual sassiness gone, "Nothing's working, is it?"

"Nope."

Wordlessly, Tia put her phone away into her back pocket and sat down next to him on the ground, hugging her knees. After a brief silence, she said, "Did you ever hear of 'The Little Engine That Could'?"

Jay let out a cough of surprise, and looked at her as if she'd gone nutty, peanut butter and jelly. "Wut?"

"You know, the children's book written in 1930 by Watty Piper. Well actually, it's earliest form dates back to 1902 in a Swedish journal and it was called "The Story of The Engine That Thought It Could'. From there it reappeared in 1906 now being called 'Thinking One Can' when it was published in _Wellspring for Young People_ , which is a-"

"What has this got to do with anything?" Jay said, interrupting Tia's history lesson.

"A-HEM! You know, the whole 'I think I can' and 'I thought I could' spiel?" She put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a serious look. "Well, do you 'think you can' or not? After all, you are supposed to be the positive one here," she said with an small smile.

Jay blinked. Then he slowly got up and turned to the power box, taking a deep breath. Then he gripped the wires in both hands and put all the lightning he could into the system, willing the traces of Caudeth's dark magic to be burnt away. He didn't look up, but he could sense the electricity flickering through the wires, through the many circuits, and up in the power lines above and below. He pushed the last bit of his lightning through the wires, telling himself it has to work, it _would_ work. And with a scattered buzzing ahead, the lights turned back on in a rush, power on once again.

"Yes!" Jay cheered, pumping his fist in the air. "Ha-ha, that's the power of positive thinking!"

"Oh darn," Tia said, shaking her head. "I was really hoping for more footage of your pathetic failure!" But it didn't sound like she meant it that much. For a brief second, the two frenemies shared a smile. Then Tia flipped her braid and once again glared at him.

"Anyways," Tia said, "I was sent to tell you that the rest of the team needs you to meet them at Borg Industries. And somehow I ended up having to tell you." She rolled her eyes.

"Why Borg Industries?" he asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Like I have _time_ to tell you!" She whirled around and began to march off. "You coming, Garbage?"

Jay rolled his eyes. "Right behind you, Trash."

* * *

On the top of Borg Industries, Caudeth and his group of sausage soldiers scoured the roof for the Realm Crystal. But after several minutes of searching even the smallest crooks and crannies, there was no sign of the powerful gem. And this did not please Caudeth one bit.

"Where is it?!" he said in rage.

"I thig thwat gurw waj lyqing." said the sausage commander, scratching the top of its round head.

Caudeth kicked a random sausage off the roof in his fury. It let out a screech that faded slowly away as it neared the ground. "I knew I shouldn't have trusted her! Those ninja will pay dearly when we get down."

The sausages started doing their strange laugh which was assumed to be an evil laugh.

"Yis eans ew san ate tem all ow?" the sausage commander asked, licking his sharp teeth.

Caudeth nodded, glaring down into the city. "Yes, but don't devour them whole anymore; devour them by piece by agonizing piece. I want them to _suffer_."

* * *

Meanwhile, the ninja were going up the stairs, but at a gradually slowing pace. They had started off fast and with confidence, but with some team members' injuries and the steep, seemingly never-ending stairs, that burst of energy wore off fast.

"Y'all, meh feet are a-killin' me!" the fire ninja complained between pants. "How much longer?"

"We just reached the second floor! How are you already tired?" Lloyd asked.

"We have precisely 2,573 more stairs." said Zane.

Kai leaned his head backwards and groaned. "Will we ever make it up, y'all?"

"In time!" A voice from behind them said.

"Tia?" Carol called down the stairs questioningly.

"Yeah!" Tia came into view and caught up with the rest of them.

"Did you get Jay?" asked Nya, looking a little suspicious.

"I told him to come." said Tia with her hands on her hips, glaring down the stairway. "He got the power back on, though I don't know how that piece of garbage could do anything remotely useful. And before you ask," she said quickly, seeing the looks on many of the team's faces, "the specific power line Caudeth cut down was attached to this building. So, no elevator."

Everyone let out a loud groan.

"Anyways, we're wasting time standing here talking!" Tia exclaimed. "Let's go!" She pointed in front of herself and started marching up the stairs.

Then Jay ran into the stairwell, catching up to Nya. "I'm still very confused as to what's going on!" he said.

"You're always confused, Garbage!" Tia shouted from the front. Jay scowled at her.

The ninja continued to climb up the stairs in long, painful minutes. They began to lag behind, panting heavily.

"We...should've...trained...on...stairs!" gasped Lloyd.

Tia, who was in the front, looked at the others who were a few yards behind. "Come on, peeps! Faster!" She burst out into cheesy song. " _Time is racing towards us! Till we arrive, on the roof! Pick up the pa-ace! And you might, get there in five-minutes-forty-six-seconds_!..." Everyone groaned once more.

Soon they arrived on the final story, right after Tia finished her second round of " _For the first TIME in forever, we are battling saus-ages_!"

Mac took out a radio and spoke into it. "Joe, we're in position. Get ready."

A staticy "Got it!" came through, and the ninja took out their weapons and crouched into fighting stances behind the door leading to the roof of Borg Industries.

"Um, I'm not very good at motivation speeches," Cole said awkwardly, "but uh, let's get out there, and...fight, uh..."

Ivy burst in. "Tonight, we are strong! Tonight, we fight as one! And tonight, we rid this city of this foul evil! We have nothing to fear! Together, nothing, not dark magic, not monster sausages, nothing! can stand against us! And," she paused, looking around at everyone, "if we fall tonight, let in not be in vain! We go down fighting!" Everyone erupted into cheers. Ivy gave her brother a victorious smile.

Cole just rolled his eyes. "We burst through this door on the count of three." Everyone quieted down, preparing for the coming chaos. It was like the calm before the storm. Cole took a deep breath. "One, two, THREE!"

The ninja slammed open the door and jumped onto the roof.

* * *

 **In case you're wondering, Tia's first song is to the tune of "I'll Make a Man Out of You" from Mulan and the second one…well, I think you all figured it out already. :'D Can't get much more catchy than Disney songs! And wow, did I actually spend time researching the origins of a children's book? XP Anyways, have a fantastical week and leave a review! Till next Saturday [and hopefully it will be a Saturday :) ]!**


	12. Life is Like a Latte

Chapter 12: Life is like a Latte

 _ **Here comes the sun, do-do-do-do! Here comes the sun, and I said, "It's all ri-"**_ **Wait, are those rain clouds? And lightning? What is life?! XP And here we are, with the last chapter of our first short story! *sniffs, grabs box of tissues, finds said box empty, throws box across the room for ruining the moment* But don't worry, we have another story that'll be much longer coming right up! But before that, we have a little something else as an "in-between" for our stories…more info in the AN after this chapter! Let's instead get to the conclusion of this cray-cray story! XD**

 **Anonymous7: Ah yes, stairs look so innocent just sitting there, but when you approach them, they spring to the attack with the power of fatigue and exhaustion! XD And thanks! Hope you enjoy! :)**

* * *

Right when the ninja burst onto the roof, they began to slip and skid in the motor oil dumped outside the door. Caudeth laughed in amusement as he watched them fall on top of each other in a pathetic heap.

 _And they thought they could defeat me?_ he thought, laughing. _What an embarrassment to all of Ninjago!_ He gestured boredly to the squadron of sausages. "Seize them."

The ninja struggled to stand up as the sausages drew near them, but they kept slipping in the thick oil.

"Darn this oil, y'all!" Kai exclaimed with frustration, losing his footing once more and falling right onto his behind.

Carol grabbed onto a nearby pole and slowly pulled herself to her feet. "Uh, guys," she said, drawing her katana, "they're coming!"

Mac sat up and aimed a bright ball of blue fire at the approaching enemy. The sausages let out screeches of pain and anger. Most looked away or squinted without a problem, but a few in the front row screamed as the dark magic burned out of them and they transformed back into ordinary sausages. The ones behind them backed away in a panic.

Caudeth hissed in a rage. "What is this?! Don't you want revenge? ATTACK THEM!"

The sausages shook the fear out of their expressions and pushed forward towards the ninja in an unstoppable wave. Yet, in their hesitation, a number of the eleven ninja had pulled themselves back into standing position.

"UGH!" Tia looked down at her oil-smeared suit. "My suit is ruined! AND YOU WILL PAY!" She drew twin short kunai blades and threw herself into the sausages ranks.

Skylor facepalmed at this, and, nimbly finding a perch on one of the building's cell towers, began to shoot deadly arrows at the rounded troops.

Nya quickly washed the rest of the oil away with her water element from where she still sat in its slipperiness, stood up, and quickly helped Kai, Jay, Ivy, and Mac to their feet. With a yell of "Charge!", Lloyd with Carol, Cole, and Zane joined Tia and Skylor in battle. Soon the whole rooftop was filled with the raging fight, the ninja outnumbered ten to one.

With a whistle, Carol once again summoned her swarm of predator birds. She pointed at the sausages, and the birds instantly started to swoop down, claws outstretched. But Caudeth saw this coming. Flicking his hand, he sent a blast of dark magic at the birds. It hit the center of the swarm, making a few birds vaporize into dust and the rest scatter with caws of terror.

"No!" cried Carol in horror. She barely dodged a sausage's thrust, but quickly shot back with a strong swing.

Meanwhile, Zane cornered a group of sausages by actually making a corner of ice and pushing them into it. Right when he was about to end it with precisely correctly accurate throws of his shurikens, Caudeth shot another missile of deadly magic at the ice, shattering it like glass. Zane dropped and rolled to avoid the blast, only to find that the sausages he had earlier cornered now cornered him.

Mac and Kai viciously threw attack after attack, using the light from their fire to weaken the sausages. Seeing this, Caudeth shot another blast of magic into the sky, and soon the clouds right above the building began to pour down. The brothers' fire shrunk to weak flickers in the heavy rains.

Up in the cell tower, Skylor carefully aimed an arrow at Caudeth's laughing back. But before she could let it fly, Caudeth suddenly spun around and shot a blast at the tower. Skylor quickly dropped out of the tower and rolled to her feet on the roof just as the tower exploded in a shower of sparks.

Jay and Nya fought back to back, Nya taking sausages out with her katana while Jay vaporized them with the light from his lightning bolts. Nya shuddered after slicing a sausage in half. Even being in two pieces, the sausage hissed and bounced forward to attack with its teeth.

Ivy attacked invisibly, moving like smoke through the swarm, while Cole dueled with several nearby. They had to dive for cover when a missile of dark magic went sailing towards them.

Scowling with fury, Tia attacked a huddle of sausages savagely. Pulling out a flashlight, she shined it directly into the sausages' line of sight. The dark magic burned out of one of them and it turned back to normal, but the others only grew angrier and jumped at her.

During all of this, Lloyd tried to sneak up behind Caudeth and take him from behind. He stalked Caudeth from behind the ventilation system of the building, peering around the corner. Right when Caudeth was about to aim another dark magic blast at Jay and Nya, Lloyd tackled the sorcerer from behind, katana at the ready. Caudeth spun in surprise and instantly blocked the blow with a sword made out of dark energy. And to Lloyd's surprise, Caudeth _smiled_.

"If it isn't the _chosen_ one," Caudeth said, pressing his blade harder against Lloyd's katana. "Looks like fate _chose_ you to be the first ninja to die by my magic." He laughed hysterically at his own pun.

"Even I make better puns than that!" Lloyd said, pressing back. Then he withdrew his weapon and swung at Caudeth, metal crashing against energy.

The battle continued around their duel, the ninja being pressed to the edges of the rooftop.

"Five minutes, four seconds, and twenty-two milliseconds to sunrise!" Tia shouted over the battle.

"Hold on, everyone!" Mac said, fighting off a group of screeching sausages. "Just a little longer!"

* * *

Five minutes, four seconds, and twenty-two milliseconds passed by. The sun broke through on the horizon, filling the sky with light. Dueling with Lloyd, Caudeth didn't even notice. He kicked Lloyd's feet from under him and raised his dark energy sword above his head for the death blow. But as he was about to bring it down, the sword faded into nothingness as the light hit it.

"Wha-" Caudeth looked at his empty hand with confusion. Lloyd grinned up at him.

"Guess you forgot to keep track of the time," Lloyd said smugly.

Caudeth looked up at the sun with fury. His dark magic never worked in direct sunlight. And it was then a helicopter rose up from hiding out of sight below the building. It directed a huge version of a magnifying glass hanging from it's rails right at him.

"No!" He cried as the sun blazed through the glass in a deadly beam of light. "NOOooooooooo..." His voice faded away as he crumpled into dust, vanishing with the wind. The clouds directly above the building melted away and the sausage army shrunk, and shrunk, and shrunk till all that was left was piles of generic grocery-store sausages.

"We did it!" said Jay, cheering with excitement. He then hugged Nya, but Kai pulled him away before it got deeper.

"Just 'cause we defeated Caudeth ain't mean y'all can go off doin' funny business!" Kai said roughly to Jay.

Carol helped Lloyd to his feet. "Looks like the city is safe once more," she said with a smile.

"NO!"

Everyone jumped at Tia's outburst.

"Who's going to pay my laundry bill now?!" she exclaimed, gesturing at the small pile of ashen dust that once was Caudeth.

Jay rolled his eyes. "You could've paid it yourself if you didn't spend so much on hair products."

Tia aimed a punch at Jay's head, but Skylor popped up between them and blocked the punch with her arm. "For the love of Ninjago, we just finished a battle!" she grumbled.

"Well, done, my little sausages." Sensei Wu said, and the ninja spun around, not realizing he was standing there behind them.

"How'd you get up here so fast?" Cole asked.

"I took the elevator, sausage. Although, there was a dent in the door."

Everyone looked at Kai. "Y'all, it was the elevator's fault!" he said indignantly.

"I already told you that it was not the elevator's fault." Zane explained coldly.

"Let's get off this roof now, peeps!" Tia said as she started marching down the stairs.

They stared at her for a moment as she climbed downwards. Then Ivy said, "I say we take the elevator!"

"Let's do this!" Lloyd said raising his fist in the air.

But what they didn't notice was someone was watching them in the shadows of the roof, where the early morning sunlight did not reach... _What a strange group of heroes. Well, now I know what I'm up against,_ he thought as he then disappeared...

* * *

A few days later, the ninja were gathered around the dining table, eating breakfast. Sensei Wu had established an official sausage storage containment unit, so to ensure they would never go without sausages again. Most things were back to the normal chaotic routine, besides Wu's new strict diet that everyone must eat at least two sausages each day. That caused the sausage store to almost be "accidentally" lit on fire. Twice.

"There! I finally updated my Snapchat account!" Nya exclaimed suddenly.

Tia leaned over to look at Nya's phone. "What the...were you taking pictures the whole time?!"

"Of course! My followers like to get in on the action too!"

Tia let out an exasperated sigh. "I ought to throw that thing out the window!"

Outside the window, the mail truck pulled up. Skylor pushed herself out of her chair and said, "I better go get it before they realize our mailbox is in the ditch." Then she walked out.

"So," said Mac, picking at a sausage with his fork, "how is the city holding up after the battle?"

"I heard that they have successfully repaired the power lines," answered Zane. "Borg Industries will suffer no permanent damage, and the sausages are still in the process of being cleared from the streets."

Carol bit her lip, thinking of the huge mess that the sausages must've caused. "Well, that's good to know," she said slowly.

"Oo! I have an announcement!" shouted Lloyd. "We will now be adding a stair-climbing curriculum to our training sessions!"

"And when was this put in in place?" Cole asked, eyebrow raised.

He was interrupted by a shriek from across the table. "YOU DESPICABLE PIECE OF GARBAGE!" Tia was standing up, yelling at Jay. Coffee dripped from her T-shirt. "YOU SPILLED MY LATTE!"

"It was an accident!" Jay retorted.

"LIKE EVERYTHING YOU DO IS JUST AN ACCIDENT!"

"It is!"

Then Skylor walked back into the room, an opened letter in hand. She took in the scene, and simply sighed. "I think we have bigger problems than your latte, Tia."

"LIKE WHAT?!"

Skylor waved the letter in the air. "Like our landlord saying he's coming to check on the property this afternoon."

Everyone looked around at the broken oven and stove, overgrown lawn, peeling paint, and the recent burn marks on the walls. "Afternoon, y'all?" asked Kai. "Like, this afternoon, afternoon?"

Skylor nodded.

"Looks like you sausages have some work to do," commented Sensei Wu, leaving the room.

"Well," said Ivy, standing up. "It was fun saving the world and all, but I better get a move on." She turned invisible. The front door opened, then closed.

"Yeah, um, Tia and I already extended our stay long enough. We should pack up, right Tia?" asked Carol.

Tia erased a section on her coffee-stained schedule, wrote something else in, then got up as well. "Yeah, we have places to be and things to see!" She and Carol quickly ran up the stairs.

Everyone left looked at Mac. He shrugged. "Well, I should be getting back to the cheese factory, shouldn't I?" He sped out the door.

"Great," said Skylor sarcastically. "Now it's up to the seven of us."

And so, our great heroes began their next quest to repair the HQ, the Bounty, and numerous other things that they have already forgotten about. Their lives continued as normal, until their next great threat... but that's another story. You thought you knew the ninja? Well, we proved you wrong!

The End….?

* * *

 **It is finished, it is done! XD First we want to thank all of you for your kind reviews and support throughout this story! You really made our first experience writing fanfiction an enjoyable one! We hope you'll join us on our next crazy written adventure! We have something fun planned next week before we dive into the next story, so stay tuned for that. Any reviews you may have on this story will be replied to on that posting. So please, review and tell us what you thought of our first story! Thank you all once again! Till next time, have an exquisite week! ;)**


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